Berlin

 

As for the last november weekend of this year, I decided to discover the capital of Germany. Not only did I decide to visit the highlights, but I have had a reunion with my German friend Uwe, who was my roommate during my journey through North Korea.

He is just as passionate as I am about traveling, and it was great to catch up with our memories, our present trip through Berlin and to talk about future destinations. For instance, his son is waiting for him in Nigeria, while Uwe's number 1 dream right now is to explore Tuvalu.

I went to see a total of 9 museums over the course of just a small weekend including friday, starting from the afternoon, not too shabby! These 9 include the Altes, Neues, Bode, Pergamon and Alte Nationalgalerie museums(of which my favorite probably is Bode), Schloss Charlottenburg, Topography of Terror, Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie and the DDR museum.

My time in these places was time consuming, but very rewarding, and I was even impressed at some of the art objects found on the so called Museum Island. On the other side, Berlin's recent history including World War II and the Cold War is impossible to ignore and the numerous stories in their respectful museums completely immersed me.

Furthermore, I also went to see the highlight sightseeings, including Brandenburger Tor, the Siegessäule, Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall at various spots and my 2 most favorite landmarks were Berliner Dom and the Reichstag.

Other than mentioning all that, I gotta say that Berlin is immense and a big metropolitan city to traverse. It's truly a beautiful and nowadays modern city which surely will continue to be extremely relevant for the country and the European Union.

The Journey of Martial Arts

 

After 10.5 years of training Kenpo Karate, a mixed martial arts which has supposedly numerous amounts of influences including, Hawaian, Filipino, Okinawan, Chinese and Japanese martial arts, I was accepted as a third degree of a brown belt wearer.

Performing this for over a decade and having been teached by dozens of instructors, professors and masters, I can say that the world of martial arts as I have experienced it so far has been pretty interesting. It's not my most passionate leisure, but it remains important to me.

I'm looking forward towards the next Kenpo chapter I will have, which will not only include learning about the new upcoming techniques and forms I am about to perform, but it will most likely also be the comeback of me returning towards tournament activities.

I am also now authorized to start teaching others officially about Kenpo Karate, obviously after this has been approved in the right amount of timing and planning. Although my hearing isn't the best, I absolutely enjoy teaching others when it "clicks" and then receiving their satisfaction as compensation.

Of course, since Kenpo Karate's future is truthfully uncertain, considering that grandmaster Ed Parker did not name a successor, and that every school in the world is interpreting the teachings, the motions and the philosophy in their own way, I wonder if it will remain relevant or even evolve.

The political and philosophical sides of this martial arts is a very hot debate among the schools, and perhaps I might write about those big topics next time. For now, it's time to relax my muscles, remember my positioning stances, and prepare myself for the next step on the martial arts ladder.

Wii U's Decline, and Dawn of Nintendo Switch

Regrettably, the Wii U has become Nintendo's worst selling console of all time. With admirable third party developers abandoning the ship within a year, the ride of the Wii U and it's dual screen concept has come and gone away.

Despite the HD output, only a handful of first party titles are really worth it on the system, as the last wave of releases has been received rather below the quality of what we can expect for them. Examples include Star Fox Zero, Paper Mario Color Splash and the early case Game & Wario.

I suppose I can write another blogpost about my personal top 10 video games on the system, but I am shocked to note that the Wii U has even fewer must have titles when compared to the N64, which is generally seen as having quality over quantity in a revolutionary 3D period.

So yeah, I won't really miss the Wii U, because it's successor has recently been announced in the form of the Nintendo Switch. It's a console/handheld hybrid system with a plethora of confirmed 3rd party support, including newcomers like Bethesda and From Software.

The greatest news about it is that pouring the R&D divisions into one platform while maintaining backwards compatibility through Virtual Console and a higher graphical output means that Nintendo is back into the spotlight and is combining all of it's strength, while attempting to rejuvenate it's inferior aspects, including third party support and graphical output.

I can't wait to hear and see more news about the Nintendo Switch in january, when the release date, pricing and launch window will be confirmed to the general audience. And without a gimmick in the spotlight, which turned profitable or not(Wii-mote and Wii U Gamepad), the focus is now on the games itself.

The marketing has already improved as the message of the first reveal is clear, it's not the Wii Three, it's not targeted for teenagers and kids, but rather primarily towards young adults. The mission and vision of the Switch are  pretty clear, meaning that it's really a system dedicated to gaming, while adding a lot of flexibility in the form of the hybrid switch and all of the potential peripheral controllers it could receive.

I really hope that Nintendo will deliver legendary with the games once again. Breath of the Wild and that sneak peak at the next 3D Mario are no brainers, but definitely do not forget about forgotten franchises. Keep mixing it up with innovation and new stuff, and the Switch will do just fine.

I'm rooting for it!