I don’t remember how I acquired this game whether it came through the Humble Choice that I get every month or if I happened to buy it. I think it’s more the former.
Anyway, it’s a quick play only about three or so hours if you’re good at puzzles. The story is a simple one, an old man is going on a long walking journey and you need to help him get there by moving the hills so that he has a clear path. The puzzles aren’t particularly difficult. I got stuck once or twice but for the most part you’ll be able to get through them easily enough. The sheep are annoying through to figure out where they’re going to go.
The story is elegiac. As you reach certain checkpoints, the old man will stop and take a rest and we’ll see some of of his memories. It’s not the most dramatic backstory but it still pulls on the heart strings. As I get older I can start to relate and appreciate these stories where it’s just a person reflecting on the mistakes they’ve made in their lives. We all have our regrets and it’s nice to have a game that confronts them.
The art of the game is beautiful. It reminds me of art that I’ve seen before but I don’t know the artist. Maybe that’s what they were going for to further the feeling of nostalgia. All of it is based in the pastoral, portraying what I assume is rural France.
The whole game only takes about three hours to play through. I would recommend it if you’re looking for something that’s just a chill time.
The rumors have been swirling around me and this blog for quite some time. I have to take a step back and address them.
My cats are not spoiled.
Pierre getting ready for a comfy snooze
Just because when Rambler doesn’t want to get off the back of the couch when I make tuna salad, I hold it up for him to drink. They are not spoiled.
Rambler annoyed that someone else is in the house besides the three of us.
Just because I bought a second cat tree so that they could both look out the window doesn’t mean they’re spoiled.
Rambler asking if you come here often
Just because I bought several cat beds that they never use and am thinking about buying them a cat wheel for their exercise. That doesn’t mean they’re spoiled.
In the words of that song from Romeo + Juliet “The Boys! The Boys!”
I’m not a parent but I know that it’s a tough job. I remember seeing the movie Inside Out with a friend that had a kid and they started crying towards the end of the movie. I asked them what about the movie made them upset and they stated that they had realized that no matter what they did, their kid was destined to be unhappy. Not overall but there were going to be moments when their kid was going to be miserable and they had been responsible for that.
It was a tough conversation but the fact that they had had that thought made me think that they would be a good parent. Their child was fairly young at the time. But it got me thinking about the role that parents play in the mental health of their children.
While I know that’s a heavy and gigantic subject, I wanted to highlight two moments in media where I think that some parents could really learn. They particularly feature mothers and their daughters. The first involves Marge Simpson, the long suffering matriarch of the Simpsons family dealing with Lisa whose having a long running bout of depression that she can’t quite shake.
Marge trying her best to help, gives her the following advice:
It is horrific advice. Not acknowledging your own feelings and dealing with them in a responsible manner and also turning yourself into a smile and nothing more. The boys immediately start taking advantage of her and her trying to follow the advice is willing to go along with it. Finally, her teacher tells her he doesn’t want to another burst of “creativity” and Lisa replies with a respectful “no, sir”. Perhaps seeing her own trauma being enacted on her daughter and what it would mean for her spirit to be destroyed, Marge becomes enraged, throws her car in gear and grabs Lisa.
She then does two of the best things that a parent can do for their child. She at first, acknowledges that she was wrong. She’s willing to say I messed up and I’m not always perfect. That’s a big thing to admit to anyone but especially your child who might have put you on a pedestal of some kind. For you to come down to their level and to see that you make mistakes too is good. It makes them more able to make mistakes.
Secondly, she tells Lisa that not only that her feelings are valid and that she is allowed to have them but that she her family will be there the entire time. They’ll ride it out with her. This cheers Lisa immensely and she starts legitimately smiling.
It’s one of the best scenes of the early Simpsons. Right up there with “DO IT FOR HER”
So, we got some great parenting right there. Let’s talk about another mom and her daughter, Claire and Alex.
Alex much like Lisa is the most intelligent member of her family and that makes her feel like an outsider when she doesn’t feel able to get involved in their antics. She pushes herself to the breaking point academically and professionally, which results in all of this:
We see a child in crisis and her parents are concerned but she knows how to take care of herself and schedules a therapy appointment and how to get there on her own. Her mother goes to her school’s open house and sees the workload that she has on her shoulders including the six hours of homework that she has to do every night.
When Claire and her daughter meet up, Claire says that being her for two hours was exhausting and she didn’t know how she has a breakdown every day. Alex begins weeping and hugs her mother. What we see in this moment is the acknowledgement of a burden and her mother seeing her for who she is and what she has to go through. It’s a big thing. Everyone has their own burdens and much like with Marge and Lisa, saying that you’ll be there with someone and help to carry it, it means a world of difference.
With Lisa and Marge we saw the pain of generational trauma coming to bear on the next generation. Alex and Claire don’t have that as Claire never had the same expectations put on her as a child. But still, they’re both helping their children find the tools and support that they need to get through their troubles. They’re good episodes that I think are worth watching.
So according to the box office, everyone in the world has seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I think that it’s a very good movie, we did it for the podcast and in general, I’m looking forward to watching it again. I saw it twice in theaters.
Still I’m going to throw up the spoiler warning here. Stop reading if you haven’t seen it and you don’t want to see plot details.
Last chance.
With the introduction of Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, we see the payoff from the end of Ms. Marvel where it’s revealed that she might have just been a mutant and they give a little sting with the X-men music. That didn’t really matter for a long time.
Ms. Marvel’s powers were still on the street level. She could still be contained. Jean Grey showcases what will most likely be the main thoroughfare for the mutant storyline.
This is what happened with just one of them.
Sure, we know that she’s an omega level mutant but the world doesn’t know that. As far as they know, this is just the baseline of mutant power. She killed people. She stopped people in their tracks for over several kilometers. She’s just one more terrible thing to befall New York City.
It becomes easy to be okay with mutants when they’re trying their best to help people and their powers aren’t that dangerous. It becomes much worse when they can and do these things. Was it an accident or purposeful? Which one is truly more terrifying?
I hope that they continue with this for a great long time. Maybe the next thing that we’re going to end up with is Avengers vs X-men and the phoenix force.
And the other great thing, is that Spider-man developed a technology to stop their powers. The mutant collars are now his fault. Can’t wait to see how guilty he’s going to feel when that comes back to bite him in his arachnid ass.
Maybe that’s why this movie has revitalized Marvel. It’s just good storytelling.
I went to yoga for the second time in my life this weekend. The first time wasn’t miserable but I think I was in worse shape then than I was now. It was still difficult, at certain points the yogi said that I should stretch as far as my body would allow. Usually, I think she means when it comes to how your arms and legs feel. Instead with some of the back stretches it came down to how much my tum-tum would allow.
I chose the wrong time to get started on this as the classes are going to be cancelled because of renovations in the building that it’s a part of. I plan to go back though when it’s available. The yogi also said that I had young hips considering how easily I could get into the lotus position. I mostly sit cross-legged throughout my life even in office chairs. I think that helps it.
That was in the morning and I was admittedly exhausted. I tried to take a nap but was unable to really get into it because I had a delightful backyard wedding to go to. I dressed in my Sunday best and headed out. The wedding had a dance floor, which I wasn’t fully expecting.
After a beautiful ceremony, a wonderful meal, it was time for the dancing. I hadn’t been dancing in a long time and I had to admit that I was a bit nervous about it. Not that I would be bad at it, I’m not a great dancer, I’m an enthusiastic dancer. I think I’m the best kind of dancer to have at your wedding. Not good enough to make people not want to be on the dance floor and bad enough to think that people can dance without feeling self conscious.
The nervousness came from my anxiety based heart worries. I have never had a heart episode or attack or anything like that but since that became a possibility in my mind, I’ve worried about pushing myself too hard. But I thought to myself, I’ve been getting pretty good readings on my heart and cholesterol. Why not go for it? There were a lot of intelligent people there. At least one of them could be a doctor.
And I danced and it was glorious. The couple picked some great songs. Hell, the bride went down the aisle to an orchestral version of “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. I had an early day the next day, so I left somewhat early.
I expected to be wracked with pain the next day. I was a little bit sore and tired but other than that, I was able to move pretty well. I’m writing this on a Monday which I’ve also used as a rest day. I think that I’ll be good to get back into the water tomorrow and go for a swim. I know that it’ll make me feel better. I think I’m grumpier when I don’t exercise. Thanks dopamine.
I want to write more of these posts about what’s going on in my life. I guess I’ll find out if people like them.
Look at Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, they’re coming to kill you! They have knives and axes! They’re going to kill people. What a twist! So interesting.
No, it’s not. It’s fucking lazy. You saw that something was now public domain and are hoping to score points for name recommendation and notoriety. Boring.
You might say though, Frank!
To which I would reply, yeah, what’s up?
You liked the Five Nights a Freddy’s games and movies? Isn’t that the same thing?
No, it’s not.
I don’t agree with Scott Cawthon’s politics but he put in the work and created an entire backstory and history for his characters. They’re original at the very least. To the point that people started hiring Nicolas Cage in movies as tribute or to cash in on that success.
I might be missing something by not watching these movies and just judging them by their concepts. They could be phenomenal. The problem is that I’ve seen movies come out with amazing ideas like Obsession and The Other Mommy. That they can sell me just by showing how weird and original they’re going to be. When I have that on my plate, why would I waste my time on something that just looks like a big old gimmick?
So, there’s this pokemon called Farfetch’d. There he is:
You might notice that he’s carrying a leek. That was one of the reasons that they were hunted nearly to extinction. And then to add insult to injury, they were usually cooked with the leek they carried. It’s like if I was constant carrying around mozzarella sticks and then they ate them over my corpse. You would think that eventually they would evolve and I don’t mean in the usual Pokemon sense, but like a normal evolution sense. Those that aren’t carrying the leek would most likely be safe.
Now, maybe you don’t get that with its evolution Sirfetch’d where that leek has been sharpened into a sword. I wonder if that hurts more getting stabbed with a leek and because of the onion’s oils. Just imagine coming at it to eat it and you get shanked by an onion.
