I just underwent a major lifestyle change. It’s something first previewed back when I was twelve years old when my mother stopped serving certain foods because she thought they weren’t processed healthily. Her efforts became a lifelong habit for me. And I did try to be a (halfhearted) vegetarian a few years ago. It didn’t last very long. But now my youngest daughter has become my biggest inspiration to indulge in the whole enchilada (organic and gluten free, that is.) And so far it’s been great. I just feel really good. There are so many good meat substitutes out there now that it’s simply a non-issue. And apparently I’m not alone. Our local grocery store has an expansive organic section and it’s often slim pickings. It’s nice to see the world catching on. Eat right or spend $400,000 on open heart surgery. The coin only has two sides, my friends. It's amazing if you do a little research how many diseases are the direct result of eating crap food, and how turning your diet around can cure so many maladies! On another note, this summer month of June has been nothing but rain. I swear it rains everyday. But that’s okay! More time to stay inside and watch movies and play games.
1. Train
Simulator 2015 on PC: I have been biding my time with the Horseshoe
Curve DLC. This neat little expansion pack is set in the very early 1960’s and
showcases Altoona, Pennsylvania and its famous curve which is shaped like a
proverbial horseshoe. Sitting inside the engine and looking 90 degrees
right out of the cab window and seeing the caboose is an unforgettable experience. Several scenarios are set in
the summer which is pretty enough, but the winter scenarios are king. Snow
falling and looking outside at the tall stark telephone poles and the naked
trees adorning the hills. It’s a beautiful vista, and makes the scenario well
worth owning if you’re a fan of Train
Simulator 2015.
2. The
Witcher 2 on PC: I’m still playing through this massive RPG. I told you
last month I started it over, and I’m currently making my way to the first
boss. I should fare much better this time around considering I dumbed the
difficulty level down a notch. I’m still irked that so much of the game is
played out through cut scenes and QTEs, but I do like the fact that given
Geralt’s makeup, the more you play the easier the game gets because of the
ability to unlock better moves and stronger weapons.
3. Metallica Reload on CD: Okay, you’re going to think me strange because I
did not jump on the Metallica bandwagon until the Load album. This was when the band cut their hair and changed their
style a tad, well, enough to ostracize some die hard fans. But to this day I
still play Load regularly, it has
become my favorite Metallica album by far. I then got to listen to their famous
Black album and found it almost as
good as Load. It made me a forever
fan of Jason Newsted (and producer Mutt Lange). Back when Reload came out I heard certain cuts make radio play, but I never
listened to the album entirely. I picked it up this month and gave it an honest
listen. I can see how it was their great transition into their truly commercial
stuff, e.g. Garage, Inc., The Mission Impossible song, etc. I admire how they
expanded their range in the studio with operatic type singing and other
unorthodox tricks, but this is an album that I certainly don’t consider bad,
and will probably grow on me the more I listen to it.
4. Armani:
Code by Georgio Armani Natural
Spray cologne: I learned long ago that the masculine art of shaving is
important to a man’s personal grooming. The proper application and wearing of
cologne is an art as well. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered it’s often
erroneously overlooked. I’m not a regular contributor to GQ Magazine, but I can
wear cologne with confidence thanks to research and practical experience. I’m a
firm believer in musks for autumn and winter and citrusy type colognes for
spring and summer. I first caught the scent of Armani: Code several months back and began saving for my very own
bottle. It’s quite effectively like releasing a Genii every time I spray it on. Each
spray evokes ocean waves spilling across a white sand beach as viewed through the
leaves of an Hawaiian rainforest, and looking back at the Roman royalty hall I
just left and knowing I can return to the most beautiful women on earth by
simply walking back. I can truly see why this stuff is so expensive.
5. A
Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick: I just purchased a Kindle Paperwhite, and this is the
first book I’m reading on it. Dick is a master of fiction ideas, I’ll give him
that, but at times his writing is a bit on the dry side. I’m enjoying this book,
but having seen the animated film twice is greatly contributing to my
understanding. This is probably the most “adult” writing I’ve ever read from
Dick, and it is entertaining, but much like his venerable, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which paled dim in comparison
to Ridley Scott’s wonderfully made film, BladeRunner,
I’m discovering this book suffers the same malady. The film (in spite of its
animated art style) outshines the book.
6. Doctor Zhivago on Blu-Ray: I first saw
this movie when I was nine years old at the local theater downtown. I was with
my mother and my aunt. The first scene depicted the movie’s main character,
Zhivago, as a little boy attending his mother’s graveside service. David Lean,
the director knew what he was doing. The whole scene either centers on the boy’s
face or the boy’s viewpoint of the whole goings on. We see the camera slowly
creep up toward the open maw of his mother’s grave. We see the camera focus on
his mother’s waxy looking corpse with her beautiful and youthful black hair. As
the scene ensues we watch as the caretakers hammer her coffin lid shut and
lower her blue velvet coffin into the ground. The last part of the scene shows
Zhivago’s expressionless mother lying in her casket, and you realize this will
be the way little Zhivago will always remember his mother. This scene was
horrifying for me. It was worse than any horror movie I’d ever seen. It made me
realize death was a real thing, and someday I would lose my own mother. I
couldn’t sleep that night, and in fact, cried so hard my eyes were swollen the
next day. So, here it is some forty plus years later and I’m getting the chance
to watch this movie again in a beautiful Blu-Ray format. In this regard it
makes me know that movies really are a form of magic. Watching a movie of this
grandeur truly is like escaping one’s life for two or three hours. And even as
the boy who saw this movie so long ago I understood that Zhivago was a haunted
man, but I had no idea of the depth. Now that I’ve seen the movie again I can
see that not only is this man haunted, but it appears a man can love two women
with equal passion.
7. The 2015 Steam Summer Sale: It’s hard
to believe how fast it seems to come around, but alas, here it is once again!
Oops! It’s already gone. Yep, that fast. Well, no worries, the winter sale will
be here before you know it. Honestly, I was not impressed with this sale.
Actually, I thought the last winter sale left something to be desired as well.
Most of what was offered was games I’d picked up in sales past. There were a
few games I wanted, but they just didn’t dip down far enough in price. I picked
up a few things, but mostly DLCs to stuff I already had.
