Edward's February 2015 Mix

 

We’re in the deep throes of winter. Ah, time to stay in, pop open a favorite beverage, don the Mike Brady pajamas and while away the hours gaming until dawn’s early light. Oddly this year, this isn’t happening for me. I’ve started a new job. Of course I mentioned this in last month’s mix, but now it’s really set in. I’m experiencing the rush of really enjoying a single day off per week, and considering myself really lucky if I get two! I’m not complaining though, my checking account has never been fatter, and in truth, the job really is oodles better than my old security job. It’s a bit more physical but every day is truly an adventure.

 

1. You Need a Budget on PC: Despite the recent lackluster Steam Winter Sale I luckily scored this $60 software for a paltry $14.95. It has become my new religion, and no, I’m not kidding. This software has not only changed the way I think about money, but even the way I look at it. It’s under my skin bad. I preach about it to everybody I meet. It’s as if I’ve suddenly started selling Amway or got involved in the pyramidal Primerica firm . The concept is quite simple. You give each and every dollar on your paycheck a job. Instead of paying a $120 car license tag in one angry swoop, you simply budget $10 a month quietly in the background, and then that one time of the year when the tag fee is due you simply write a check for the $120 that’s accrued over the past twelve months. The goal plan is to eventually establish a buffer through wise budgeting in which you are paying this month’s bills with last month’s paycheck. So, you in effect stop living paycheck to paycheck. Imagine having your paycheck in hand waiting for the bills to come in so you can pay them instead of the bills sitting there and you’re waiting for your paycheck to be able to pay them. It’s a concept I never imagined possible, but watching it happen is a thing of beauty.

 

2. The Essential Journey  on CD:  I remember hearing Steve Perry’s remarkable soprano voice in 1981 right before I left for the Navy. My best friend at the time, Clint Vogt, turned me onto Perry’s band, Journey. The first time I heard them I just couldn’t get over the unique powerful sound of Perry’s voice. And then I got my first Sony Walkman, and I remember lying awake lonely in a Navy barracks and hearing, “Don’t Stop Believing,” with Neil Schon’s haunting guitar work emanating through the song and feeling so homesick I could cry. I continued to grow with Journey. Their album, Raised on Radio which came out in the mid 80’s reflected the music of that time. Perhaps that was the band’s last attempt to roll with the punches, because they went quiet in the 90’s. They turned out some wonderful hits, fortunately all inclusive in this double album CD I picked up. To this day, when someone mentions, “power ballad,” I always think of Journey.  

3. Peter Gabriel UP on CD: Peter Gabriel’s album “Us,” is one of my all time favorite works. “Up” is part of a trilogy Gabriel created in the 80’s through the early oughts. To be honest, when I first heard it I listened to it once, and then added it to my list to trade on www.swapaCD.com. But I recently gave it another listen, and it’s growing on me. It’s certainly not like “Us” which will always be on auto repeat in my CD tray or my queue on Google Play, but I’ve definitely become a fan.  The album runs Gabriel’s usual ensemble of synth-keyboard play and chorus singers in the background. The steady bass synthesizer he uses along with his raspy voice that makes him uniquely his own act stays true to form. I can now see this album as being part of a trilogy. Now I need to track down Gabriel’s most successful album, “So,” the beginning of the trilogy.  

4. Revolution by Deborah Wiles: Speaking of trilogies, this book is the second of one. Wiles’ first novel Countdown was about a young girl entering the world of teen angst despite the Cuban Missile Crisis happening around her. The book is a wonderful snapshot of the world at that time and place. And it’s one of the few books I’ve read more than once. This, her second novel, is about a girl witnessing the Civil Rights Act in action in 1964. Her town is about to become “invaded” by the now famous Freedom Schools for the Summer project. I’ve only started the book, but it already exudes Wiles’ wonderfully innocent observations through a school girl’s eyes of important world changing events that made indelible impressions on everybody who lived through them.    

5. Train Simulator 2015 on PC: I have  been binge playing this again. I can’t describe it any better than a calm inducing drug. I’ve been playing Amtrak New York to New Haven scenarios, and I’ve finally scored all of the Steam achievements for completing it. This is a beautiful bit of DLC, I might add. One scenario has you trying to keep to a passenger timetable at dusk. It’s wintry, everything snow covered with rain falling, and it’s simply spectacular looking. I’ve said it before, I’ll never be a train engineer despite my fascination with trains as a kid. But now I don’t have to be, nor would I really want to be I don’t suppose. This simulation gives me a taste for the real thing, and it’s all the immersion I really need. It's where I get to see my life as a grown up in a path taken in a parallel universe. 

6. Card Hunter on PC: Awarded PC Gamer Magazine’s “Most Original Game of the Year 2013” this great little gem which is free to play and played entirely in a browser is something everybody should check out. It’s a streamlined version of the old style D&D games you used to play with friends who used graph paper and multi sided dice. The game is depicted in loving detail including, grease stained pizza boxes, carbonated drinks and worn down pencils. Even the modules are lifelike two tone ink jobs done on paper. The element of newness in this version is the use of collectible cards. It sounds complicated, but it’s not, it’s actually downright addicting. You’ve been warned.