The mild evenings have been conducive to one of my favorite pastimes: reading. Parking myself on the porch with an occasional stogie and a glass of beer (non-alcoholic, of course), some tuneage on my audio player and a good read is a little slice of heaven in these, the last days, crazy ones at that. I’ve upgraded my camera this month in hopes of getting out of the house more. I mean, come on! There has to be more to life than playing PC games, Netflix bingeing, and reading all of the time. (Notice I didn’t say guitar playing, because that IS the life!) Anyway, I’ve lost sight of my photography hobby the past few years, so I thought I’d do something to kick start it.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 on PC: GameTime Tracker says I’ve been playing this game for 34 hours. It feels more like 50 hours and then some. The game, released in March 2011, was a sequel. Launched as a “sim-cade” racer, it’s still arcadey enough that I can’t use my wheel with it, though it runs just fine with my Xbox Controller. The game seems squirrelly enough that I’ve had to dumb down the AI enough that I don’t feel cheated in my victories. (With NFS games, sometimes it be like that!) I’ve had a good time with the game, but the series events just keep going and going and going. The track girls are nice. It seems after this, EA became more sensitive to liberalism and the idea of pretty girls showcasing the cars in the lineup before each race became sexist. My goal is to complete all of the NFS games made. I’ll be glad when this one is over so I can move on to the next one.
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg: I’d never heard of Fannie Flagg until I saw the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Then of course, having watched it, I had to track down the book. I laughed out loud so much with the book I’d have people ask me if I was okay. This story involves a terminally ill guy from Chicago who moves to a small island community in Alabama per his doctor’s orders to relocate to a more temperate climate. Oswald T. Campbell, our guy, raised in a bevy of orphanages and named after a can of soup, is jaded and bitter. His fight with alcoholism, the big city coldness, stark winters and an unfulfilled life take a turn for the better as he moves to this quiet little Mayberry like place. Fannie Flagg is probably more recognized as a women’s fiction writer. No matter, she has her hooks in me. You can’t help but look at the sunny side of life after reading one of her books.
Book of Love: Book of Love on CD: I remember having the extended 12” dance hit, “Boy” back in 1986, gifted to me by a friend in Texas. I stumbled across this rare find and was surprised the CD included the original radio hit AND the extended club hit of the same extended song I once had in my possession. Using tubular bells, drum machines and a bevy of synthesizers, this is a band that toured with Depeche Mode back in the mid-80s. They got their influences from the likes of The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs, and some of the great Motown girl groups from the sixties, and their sound nails that. Check out a listen of “I Touch Roses” or “Boy” on YouTube. I think you’ll agree.
Pandemic by Z-Man Games: This is a game in which 1 to 5 players start from the CDC stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, and move around the world in an attempt to isolate and destroy viruses run amok. Sounds oddly prophetic, doesn’t it? You choose a character with a role, something along the lines of dispatcher, researcher, medic, or quarantine specialist (among others) and players co-ordinate their efforts to beat the game. Each role has a different and beneficial perk or ability to help in the fight. The game is not easy. If you really want a good laugh, and some extra credit points, watch Wil Wheaton’s playthrough of this on his board game YouTube channel. Good stuff.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 Mirrorless Full Frame Camera: Remember in the preamble when I told you jumpstarted my photographic endeavors? Well, this is the beast I did it with. Considered a mid range mirrorless camera, it could have fooled me. It has 24 megapixels and shoots video in 4K. It has the same sensor as the Netflix approved heavy hitter S1H model. And it’s full frame! I’ve not had a full frame camera since my Navy days when I had my trusty Canon AE-1 35MM film camera which, unfortunately, got stolen. Maybe this will indeed, like I said, get me out of the house more. I certainly need to shake the funk this lousy Coronavirus pandemic caused.
The Animatrix OST on CD: I was never a fan of the Matrix movie trilogy like I was the animated movie, The Animatrix, which was a series of short animated films centered on the environment of the original movie. Back in 2007, I was playing Linden Labs’ Second Life (the real “Metaverse,” Zuckerberg, eat your heart out!) when I stepped into a dance club and heard a song by Photek called “Ren 2.” This prompted me to watch The Animatrix and fall in love with it. Getting a collective of all of the great music from the film makes me feel blessed in some way. There’s not a bad tune on the album. My favorite though, probably for sentimental reasons, has to be the aforementioned “Ren 2.” It has a post apocalypse barren desert Mad Max or Fallout feel to it that is both sad and beautiful. Since I’ve got the album, I’ve listened to it on my DAP on repeat every time I go outside to read. It’s that good.
One Deck Dungeon by Asmadi Games: Choose one of five brave heroes to bring on a quest to conquer one of five perilous dungeons! This is a card and dice game in miniature. The whole game box is the size of a small book, eh, maybe a little thicker, but amazing in what the small box contains: torchlight, dank dungeons, the clash of steel against dragon scale, and desperate battle cries. It’s a game designed to be played solo and it is more fun than it has any right to be. My first game I kept thinking, this isn’t so bad, I’ve got this. And then I met the dungeon boss and was one-shotted my first turn against him. Oops! Great game, great art style. The only thing I don’t like is, all of the five heroes are women. I swear I’m not sexist! Women are the loftiest of God’s creations, but I don’t like playing as a girl.
Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson. The holy trio in photography is Aperture, Shutter, and ISO. Peterson explains why this is and how to utilize these components to the best of their abilities in this superb book written for the beginning to intermediate photographer. It’s truly one of the best books I’ve read on the subject, not to mention the great photographs inspiring all kinds of ideas to go out and shoot. I didn’t realize this until my stepdad loaned me the book, but it’s held in high circles in the world of picture taking. I can see why it is now that I’ve read it. If you get the chance, check it out, it may inspire you to pick up your own camera and see what you can do.
Samuel Adams Just the Haze IPA Non-Alcoholic: I’ve always liked the taste of beer, but I can’t drink it. It’s not good for my damaged ticker. Doctor’s orders. So, I recently discovered the joys of non-alcohol beer (and no, I’m not talking about O’Douls!) There are bars and drinkeries opening up now in many places that exclusively serve non boozy drinks. Egads! What is this world coming to? Studies show the youth of today is slowly weaning off of alcohol. This is a great thing. This non-beer actually tastes really, really, good. The only bad thing is, I have to seek out special places to buy this golden Sam Adams brew, because my town doesn’t sell it anywhere. The last time I bought it, the checkout girl had to ask a fellow cashier for assistance, “It’s not asking for his ID?” “No, of course not, read the package, it doesn’t have any alcohol in it,” she said. I had to pipe up, “’Tis true, the great taste without the guilt and hangover.” I made them both laugh.
