Family Break

For the third annual time, my father and mother, brother and stepsister, and little cousin, as well as I, have performed a family break, in between the busy chaos of every day activities.

As some kind of tradition, 2 years ago we were at Renesse in Zeeland, a year ago at Noordwijk in Noord Holland, and now we were at Hellendoorn in Overijssel for a full week, the longest time together inside a vacation house yet.

After breakfast, we would usually do a citytrip then, or visit some other place, such as an aquarium, a forest, or a beach. We would eat and drink whatever we wanted, play board games in the evening, buy gifts and do our hobbies while relaxing all around.

Truthfully, the main spotlight goes towards my little cousin, who gets all of the attention and love he deserves. Secondary, it's quality family time in general. And also, especially for this year, I needed a somewhat normal vacation, badly.

We intend to continue this trend for next year, perhaps go a bit further geographically, if possible. Not only is it healthy to perform in these kinds of breaks, there are also moments where I reflect back, and attempt to reset and improve my life further.

It's hard to do so this year for so many of us, but I will keep trying to live happily, no matter how dire my personal situation or the world situation becomes. Family breaks like these act like memorable highlights, and I will keep trying to expand upon that.

No matter how long it takes, as long as I keep trying.

Tyranny of Words

 

“The pioneering and still essential text on semantics, urging readers to improve human communication and understanding with precise, concrete language.”

This is much more accessible for me than Korzybski’s Science and Sanity, which was my first introduction towards this field of knowledge of the meaning behind words, in their different events, contexts and circumstances.

In 1938, Stuart Chase revolutionized the study of semantics with his classic text, The Tyranny of Words. Decades later, this eminently useful analysis of the way we use words continues to resonate, especially during these digital times of social media, fake news and wide interpretations.

Chase was a social theorist and writer who despised the imprecision of contemporary communication. Wide-ranging and erudite, this iconic volume was one of the first to condemn the overuse of abstract words and to exhort language users to employ words that make their ideas accurate, complete, and readily understood.

He encourages to ask and analyze further what people really mean with certain words and sentences, in certain contexts, during certain moments of events. Linguistically, he goes through major topics such as science, economics, politics, religion and social comments to give examples which become more clear the more you read.

In short, The Tyranny of Words will let you question general communications in life, which is a valuable asset towards trying to ascertain fiction from reality and lies from the truth. This is certainly a good read, which is worth your time, and it’s still relevant.

 Rating: ***

AI: The Somnium Files

 

Kotaro Uchikoshi's latest visual novel, this is from the same guy who created the Zero Escape trilogy of games, which were great for the most part, published by Spike Chunsoft and expanded my interest into visual novels with strong writing.

AI: The Somnium Files has lots of voice acting, very pleasant animation models, a slick interface, and tons of paths with different endings. It's flowchart system is very similar towards his previous games, and only if you discover the true or best endings, then you will get the most quality and fun out of it, which is a typical trademark.

You play as Kaname Date, a detective assisted by an AI partner Aiba, and they will investigate and interrogate different scenes and events in order to hunt for the truth, or several truths, out there. And as I predicted I reached a bad ending first during my first playthrough.

Aside from the main gameplay being reading a lot of text and choosing dialogue, the other part is interacting in dreamlike worlds where you will attempt to reproduce the event that happened in there, in a kind of surreal, abstract way.

Although these moments were out there and standing out at the same time, sometimes the trial and error was a bit too much for me. Admittedly, I also did not pursue all of the flows or paths in order to see all of the endings, because I felt that the game was playing too long for my interest to hold up.

AI: The Somnium Files is a recommendable visual novel with plenty of references towards pop culture, for the most part likable characters, and a pleasant presentation in overall. The storyline is not as mind blowing, plot twisting or clever as Zero Escape, but you will have a good time anyway.

Rating: 7.8

 

Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2

I'm surprised to discover that I have not talked about these 2 charming games yet...!

Super Monkey Ball was the first video game I bought and played on my Nintendo Gamecube back in 2002. Instead of going for Luigi's Mansion, and while waiting for Super Smash Bros. Melee, I gave this new IP a chance.

You play as monkeys trapped in balls, while traversing and overcoming stages, using the analog stick for directional input, fast pacing, balance and careful considerations. The solo playing consists of beginner, advanced and expert stages, and if you are really good, you can attempt the master stages.

As for myself, Super Monkey Ball is one of the few games in my collections which I have never beaten completely, since I consider it to be that difficult. I get stuck halfway through the Expert stages, but still, this game is quite special.

Considering it's puzzling theme and concept, as well as the entertaining mini games available, the precise controls and the amount of skill needed are aspects which I respect it for. Sega made a very good hit, and it's still playable and fun.

Rating: 7.7

I have only recently played Super Monkey Ball 2, and since this game's single player offers unlimited continues, I was able to beat all ten worlds and ten stages.Some of them definitely involved more luck than skill though.

Like the original arcade port, this game also has Master and Extra levels featured, if you are able and skilled enough to reach them. Similarly, I was not able to touch them in here as well, but yet again, I appreciate the design and the content.

Super Monkey Ball 2 also features more mini games than before, including updated ones, and after this, the franchise has gone downhill in regards to quality, and they never really recovered. Should Super Monkey Ball 3 ever get released, I would gladly welcome it.

Rating: 7.5

Tenet

 Posterity

 "Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time."

An interesting reverse time based thriller movie unfolds, and this is my 2nd movie I have seen at the cinema for this pandemic year. It felt like forever since a blockbuster movie has been released, and all of the other promising ones have been pushed back towards the upcoming months, or next year.

Like many, I did not understand everything on the first watch, it's one of those movies. It's not just that a plot twist or two will happen, it's more so that the film logic of Tenet is deeply layered, similar to Inception(2010), although time is used abstractly in here, at first.

The Protagonist, the nameless main character, is played by an unknown actor for me, it goes without saying that John David Washington's career will be boosted by this film. Robert Pattinson plays along as support, while the rest of the cast, minus Michael Caine, is also unknown to me.

The score by Ludwig Göransson captures your attention and extends the movie's drama effectively, and some of the scenes, including the heavy dialogue and the action seems that feature the reverse time elements, can be heavy to digest all of it.

Apparently, a latin palindrome is playing out in Tenet, a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards. And some characters that appear, turn out to be someone else. And I am sure that there is more to be found.

Tenet is Christopher Nolan's latest, an action sci-fi which I won't rate highly right away, but it definitely has potential upon more watches.

We live in a twilight world.

Rating: 8.0