Pirate Utopia

Pirate Utopia is an alternate history satire written by Bruce Sterling. It was published in 2016 but somehow I completely missed it as I was sidetracked by that shit show of an Presidential election. As my readers would know, I've written quite a few reviews of books written by Bruce Sterling. I would go so far as to say that Sterling and William Gibson are my favorite science fiction writers. They created the cyberpunk genre, helped develop steampunk, and were the cream of the crop of science fiction writers during the entire 1980s. 

However, here Sterling chose not to write science fiction, but rather an alternate history satire, something he calls dieselpunk which turns out is a lot like steampunk and cyberpunk. Sterling considers this as a subgenre of science fiction. It's related to science fiction but its also rooted in history and makes use somewhat of real facts. He's using history, elements of science fiction and satire to create something that would appeal to more popular culture. In this case, catering to the European general public more so than the American science fiction crowd.

Sterling quotes this line from the manifesto of Despero and Giacomo in 1915:
We will find abstract equivalents for all the forms and elements of the universe, and then we will combine them with the caprice of our imagination. This just about sums up the motives of the characters in this novel.


The book is about a group of pirates around 1920, WWI era. They've taken control of this village called Fiume, now present-day Rijeka. They believe in the Futurist Manifesto. They steal everything they can including a communist controlled armored vechicle in the beginning of the novel. Their enemies are the communists, the rich, and the fascists, whom they are not entirely unsympathetic towards. They engage in Freemasonry, free love, equal pay and rights for women, they love jazz music, ceremonial rituals, etc. Kids today would say they are "extra". As you can see this gets pulpy very fast. 

Our main cast is comprised of the Ace of Hearts, a military leader of the secret police and the Pirate Engineer [lots of nicknames in this book] Secondari, a guy with a chip on his shoulder who lost an ear in the war but because he's an amazing weapons engineer he's given complete control to take over the means of production concerning weapons. There's even a Prophet, a warrior poet who runs a harem and the principle leader behind their ideology but deep down hates himself and his life. 

Secondari becomes "Minister of Vengeance Weapons" [what a great title!] He revitalizes a weapons factory and starts developing torpedoes and even a death ray [very cyberpunk and reminiscent of Nazi technology conspiracies]. Soon other governments become interested and Spymaster Colonel House from President Wilson's government sends Houdini and his assistant H.P. Lovecraft under the guise of a magic show to work out a secret deal. Along the way, Hitler gets killed by jumping into a bullet to save his friend and Mussolini gets shot to death in the dick by some girls that wandered into his office. That's where the book ends. 

This is all very fun and funny material but where's the meat and potatoes to it? The thing is that this book has a lot of exposition but everything else is mostly left up to the imagination of the reader. The characters themselves are only interesting to a point. Secondari is a mediocre villain. He lives only to serve his ideology, for the cause of the Pirate Futurist Utopia. But when Frau Pfeiffer [an industrial factory owner] throws herself at him he denies her. He only loves her daughter, because Frau Pfeiffer was the one woman that nursed him back him to health when he was at his worst. Even his own family didn't to do that for him. So he loved Frau Pfeiffer's daughter and made sure that she would never be harmed. However, this actually made him a worse person as a result. He vowed to kill anyone who ever harmed her. At all costs.

The Prophet seemed like a cool cat. I mean he runs a harem and he's a warrior poet. Sounds like a real hippie awesome free love guy. But when Secondari sees him for the first time he realizes that this man, the Prophet is broken, lifeless. Because Secondari doesn't hear very well [one of his ears was blown off in the war] he has this intimate ability to see into a person's soul. He looked at the Prophet and somehow knew right away that he was completely wasted, drained of life. So I guess having a ton of girls to fuck all the time can be a drag sometimes. It's an interesting observation.

On a side note, there's the Art Witch, one of the Prophet's women. I actually liked her a lot because she reminds me of the typical bohemian girl, of any race, although of course here she's Italian. She's into the occult, does spiritual seances, wears weird kinky outfits with probably no underwear, she's a fixture of the art scene, and of course she's rich because that way she has the time to do all this goofy stuff. She's one to remember. Actually, if you hang around the music and art scenes for a while you'll find girls like this. I've run into plenty in the music crowds I've chilled with at parties and such. It can get weird but its always fun.

The characters themselves are quite eloquent. But they aren't the focus of the story. A lot of it is actually exposition. The first thirty pages are exposition but the fact that the novel is so short [only 170 pages] it makes the beginning very slow. After a while, the writing seems to get into a flow that is very easy to continuously read and enjoy. That's the magic of this book. The writing style is very breezy, satirical, and entertaining. I wasn't reading so much as to find out the plot but more so out of the sheer fun and joy of just turning the pages and being amused by it all. 

There are some funny moments. Before the book officially starts there's a real H.P. Lovecraft quote that I love. "I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me." Well, that's just terrific. Not only is it true but the fact that Lovecraft said it makes it hilarious because he's known more for his horror than anything else. 

There's a lot of funny moments. Adolf Hitler dies by jumping into a bullet to save his friend. He's actually a great guy it turns out. Mussolini is in charge of a newspaper and gets killed by some girls who wandered into his office with a gun. How did they kill him? They shot him in the dick. The fact that our main villain here gets Hitler and Mussolini out of the way without realizing it makes it a true cosmic comedy. 

Then there's the Prophet who runs a harem but is completely devoid of life. It's sort of funny. Maybe too much sex could be bad for you? Houdini's magic trick at the end was definitely quite comical as well. For his last trick, he ends up sticking needles into his face and then eating them after he pulls them out. Sounds horrifying but at the same time realistically I'd probably be laughing my ass off if I saw someone do that. This is, after all, a satire not unlike something the gentlemen of the old days would write. Think Voltaire and Dante, but 80's cyberpunk version. 

At the back of the book, there's a great appendix and interview with Sterling. Why did he write this book? Because he felt that he had to tell the young people in Europe about what really happened back then because they don't know much about those times. In particular he wanted to remind people about how fascism got imported from Europe [Italy and Germany] to Britain and America where its still alive and well today. When he said that I thought to myself, "yeah, I get it." It's a joke, a complete joke but you have to understand history and its long-lasting impact on society to get it. It was a great Aha! moment. 

At the same time, I would also say that Sterling is at the end of his ropes regarding science fiction. He mentioned in the interview that he had a different writing persona, a European one, with a European name [Bruno of all names], even writing in a different voice. When I read that part I thought to myself, "oh god, don't do it." So yes that was very cringing for one of my favorite writers who helped duo-create the cyberpunk genre with William Gibson but hey what can you do? There was once a time where Gibson and Sterling were the best science fiction writers [the 80's] but now I see that the genre has moved away from them. They realized that and they have tried to become mainstream. Gibson has been writing graphic novels as of late [Arcangel] and now Sterling is writing stuff like Pirate Utopia. It's fun but it will never be the grand, serious, science fiction space operas that they wrote in the beginning of their careers. It's a shame because I believe if they went back to writing that sort of stuff the science fiction community would take notice. However, once you write something as great as The Difference Engine or Schismatrix Plus there's too much pressure on you keep putting out masterpieces for the rest of your life. I'll settle for Pirate Utopia because I'm a true fan and reader of Sterling but for other people, they might say,"this doesn't cut it."  For one thing, the plot isn't revaled until the very end and it ends on a cliffhanger. A lot of people would hate that. But I'm such a Sterling initiate I say let him get away with it. Not a super important novel but relevant in today's political and historical climate. The most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. Because it's short and easy reading I would recommend it. A taste of pop culture from the cyberpunk legend himself. 

On a side note, it should also be mentioned that there's terrific artwork in this book in between chapters. The cover was initially what spurred me on to pick it up and when I saw it was Sterling I checked it out from the library right then and there. The cover is great because it uses communist visual imagery to promote this Futurist ideology. The conceit is that they used communist propaganda visuals even though the characters in this book hate communists with a passion. It got me thinking more about futurist art and art movements in general like cubism. [I know nothing about art but I wish to learn more now]

Check out my other Bruce Sterling novel reviews
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/12/holy-fire.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/zeitgeist.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/schismatrix-plus.
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-difference-engine.html  
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=artificial+kid 

Politics in 2019

"If Trump turns progressives into intolerant agents of incivility, then we have lost our souls."

That line got me thinking a lot about politics in America circa 2019. The op-ed was written by a NYTimes columnist and can be viewed here.

There is definitely a giant gaping divide between the Democrats these days. Of course I identify as a Democrat and in the past [and now] I've supported socialist policies [and still do], things like social security [it should be increased every so years imo], abortion rights for women, same-sex rights for LGBTQ community, anti-war stance, anti-trade war, anti-tariff, cheaper college, cheaper housing, and better opportunities for poor/working class communities. But I am most definitely not a flaming liberal or progressive. 

Progressives of my father's era [he came to America from China during the Eisenhower administration] are more old school progressives. Fairly accepting and respectful of other people who don't happen to agree with them. The NYTimes op-ed that inspired me to write this blog mentions that the old school progressives follow Voltaire's quote for the most part.

Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

However, the millennial progressives of today are different. For young progressives, the priority is to stand up against racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and bigotry. It can be a real in-your-face-affair but they get their point across. The main conflict here is how to live life with liberal values in an illiberal age. 

It is almost impossible to balance because it requires intellectual humility. Something most people lack severely. Especially with the liberals and conservatives that I run into daily at work and online. One of the problems is that liberals are quick to embrace anyone that doesn't look like them but only if they think like them too. We progressives should have the intellectual curiosity to read, review, and better understand conservative policy and values. Do you, as a progressive and/or democrat really understand how Trump won the 2016 election? Do you understand real conservatives? Real Republicans?  Do you read conservative news outlets to better understand their views? 

The bottom line is that we have to stop the hate. Sometimes conservatives are right on certain issues [secure borders, defense budget] and sometimes Democrats are more right on certain issues [all the things I mentioned above]. As I come to understand conservative ideology through alternate news outlets I can understand why some people voted Trump in 2016 and will vote for him again in 2020. The turning point for me when I realized, "I disagree with these conservatives but I don't have to dislike or hate them." And I realized that when I saw how there were 20 Democrats running for President I got super excited. Anyone of them could realistically demolish Trump in 2020 easily. But I also listen to them talk about their alternative paths to fix/change what Trump has done and it's very half-assed. They say all the right things to the right people but realistically they've run out of steam. Their ideas just don't have that much meat or potatoes to it. Progressives say college should be free for everyone. With what money? They want to fix immigration and get kids out of cages. How are they going to do that? Are they going to hire more staff to work at these facilities? Create more facilities? They don't have it figured out. They want to be more anti-war and save money on the defense budget. But how are we going to tackle the ongoing threat of nation-wide terrorism and nuclearization if we spend less on our military budget? I don't want hippies running the government. 

If you can't understand the opposing party then you have no business trying to belittle your political enemy because you don't know what you're talking about. On the other side, nobody should feel they have to defend themselves to the death just because they disagree with somebody politically. 

At the end of the day, we are all Americans. The extremists aren't the only problem. It's also the collective hivemind itself, picking off anyone that doesn't fit into their mold. The only way we're going to make it through this era alive [politically] is if we realize that winning debates won't bring Americans together. Stop the hate. Understand your enemies. You might realize that you have a lot more in common than you think. The American dream is at stake right now.  And it's not just Republicans that are holding it ransom. I'm looking at you too, Democrats.

Love and peace! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjFIR5AZL8

Winter Wonderland Xmas and New Year irl update

Life has been great. I've been working a ton, gaming a ton, playing guitar a ton, and just living life to the fullest every day. It's pretty great! For the Christmas break from school my younger brother came and visited us. It was great having him. It was a real bros kind of a Christmas with the three brothers all together. My brother goes to the University of Chicago and he's a brilliant young guy. He runs a great blog about African/Caribbean history and its tagged on my blog. I like his posts on jazz. Check it out.

Work has been stressful but it pays the bills. I've been working super late shifts and its always a lot of work. But as they say the show must go on even if I'm tired of it. I've almost reconciled the fact that I'm giving up a social life to work but there have been good things that have come out of work lately. Such as...

The other night I met Steve Vai's son, Fire Vai. Don't call his name out in a movie theater! :D
We talked for a bit and I told him about how his dad was a big influence on my guitar playing. He mentioned that Tosin Abasi comes over to their house all the time. Later that evening he came back and gave my friend and I some signature Vai guitar picks, poster, dvd, and a cd! Talk about cool.

Christmas was also great despite the fact that I worked until 11:30 pm. When I got home I got to eat a great Cornish game hen dinner and open my gifts with my family. I got a nuka cola girl blanket, fallout vault boy (pixelated art-style) snapback, n64 anthology book that covers every game made on the console, Ravi Coltrane's latest record, Attack on Titan movie part 2, Warhammer 40k comic, Halo original soundtrack, Hendrix shirt, Megadeth shirt, Ghost shirt, Steam card, and I still have one more gift coming from a friend or two. Talk about an epic fucking loot experience. I spent a lot of money on friends and family this year and they certainly did the same for me. It's great knowing that people care about me and got me great stuff that I will use for the long term.

In addition, earlier this week I jammed with a guitar playing co-worker of mine and we're going to start a project together. Find a bassist and a singer and have a real band that can start gigging. These guys are younger than I am but they are great musicians. The guitar player is a progressive metal player that plays on a John Petrucci signature 7-string. The drummer just likes to groove but he has great technique and fills. He was keeping up with every rhythm I threw at him. It was an incredible jamming experience. With me there things went into improvisatory jazz territory but I could also bring it to prog and metal moments as well.

In terms of gaming I've been playing a lotta stuff with friends. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm mostly but since I got Warhammer Vermintide from a friend on Christmas I've been putting in time on that. It's a great game and I'm glad I finally have it because I've been wanting it for a while.

Lastly, its been a real winter wonderland in California this year. Its been the coldest year since I've lived here. Nights get pretty cold in my room but thankfully I have a extra blanket and a small heater.

Things have been good but life also has to be well balanced in order to live a meaningful life. As we go into this next year I will focus harder on living a meaningful life. That is all I can ask for.

That's it for now. See ya next year!

Overwatch plans for 2017

Jeff Kaplan put out a new video talking about Overwatch and plans for the future.

He began talking about how they haven't changed Sombra yet because they think she has a high skill cap and they don't want another overpowered character like the launch of Ana. They introduced Eichenwalde, Arcade Mode, Seasonal Events, and all the other content. It's been a blast.

Looking forward to the new year there's a lot of stuff for the players to be excited about.

Oasis is the new map that's already on the ptr. They're going to release it early 2017, maybe even by the new year.

More Seasonal Events are coming. Some that we'll see coming and some that we won't see coming.

They're working on customization for a communication wheel (ultimate, hello, voice lines, etc). They're going to put like 4 emotes and voice lines and stuff. There's also going to be custom bindings to trigger these. For sprays they're going to add a spray wheel-up to four sprays. By adding this customization it will make a lot of the voice lines, sprays, and emotes more exciting and rewarding.

Minor upgrades include joining team chat right away instead of clicking on it every game.

They're working on a lot of new content all the time but they also scrap a lot of ideas as well. Genji is an example of this because he wasn't working out in the beginning of the creation process. They have a hero that has been worked through the art prototype already. Possibly Doomfist voiced by Terry Crews?

They're working on other maps other than Oasis. These will be shown next year. Some won't see the light of day.

They're always looking for new things to try out for Arcade Mode.

Improvements for esports will be coming for sure-particularly for spectator viewing. Professional broadcasters and observers have been helping them with this.

The last thing which they mentioned at BlizzCon is that they want to give us a way for us to find custom games. They're creating a server browser so people can see a big list of custom games and players can create them and make them public for people to join. This is the top requested feature and its very common in first person shooters. They're going to have a solid version 1.0 running in early 2017 and they're going to expand upon it later.

The developer updates will keep coming and we'll learn more as time passes.

Oh yeah, Tracer was revealed as being gay in the latest Overwatch comic. Cheers love, the gays are here!

Xmas gift ideas

I thought I'd do a brainstorming session for ideas for Christmas gifts.

For my friends I was thinking things like video games, t-shirts, hats, etc. I could become more specialized and get them things more interesting. For one friend I could get him something car-related. For another I could get him a metal album. For another I could get her something food related like a restaurant gift card. For another I could get him art supplies.

For my mom and other family things get even more specialized. For mom I was thinking something quasi religious relating to zen Buddhism (because she practices that) or I could send her flowers and a card with some money.

For my younger brother I will probably get him some sort of interesting science fiction novel. Maybe even one I already own LOL.

For my dad things get a little complicated. I will probably buy him something that he asks me to get for him.

For my older brother the obvious choice is a game. A less obvious choice would be comic books, art books, gaming shirt, and I was even thinking of getting him a cool Marvel figurine that they sell at Gamestop.

Then there's other people I might have to get stuff for. For them I will just get like little snacks or trinkets, things you can buy at places like Homegoods.

Then there's stuff for myself. But maybe I shouldn't even bother with that.

Overwatch Wins Game of the Year

Overwatch took the high honor of becoming Game of the Year at this year's The Game Awards. It beat Doom, Inside, Titanfall 2, and Uncharted 4.

When he accepted the award, Blizzard’s Ray Gresko said, “While we’ve been very happy with how the game has been received, we’re also extremely proud that this game and the world that we’re building has a message and it’s a message about heroism. It’s a message about diversity. It’s a message about a bright and positive and hopeful future. And these are all things that we really believe everyone needs a little bit of right now.”

Overwatch to me is one of the best games of our modern gaming era. I, myself enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed Starcraft II, Diablo II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Smash 4, Project M, Melee, numerous Final Fantasies, and Marvel Vs Capcom 2.  All those games are top notch.

What makes the game so great is that this is about heroes (and villains to a lesser extent), a more hopeful future, it brings more diversity to gaming, and it brings people together through the interactive multiplayer. They've created a masterpiece at Blizzard and the fact that they can bring joy to many people in what is seen as a dark period of history is downright amazing. Kudos to them.

The Game Awards’ other winners were:

• Best Mobile and Handheld Game: Pokemon GO
• Best Family Game: Pokemon GO
• Games For Impact Award: That Dragon Cancer
• Best Independent Game: Inside
• Best Multiplayer Game: Overwatch
• Best Esports Game: Overwatch
• Best Action-Adventure Game: Dishonored 2
• Best Action Game: Doom
• Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
• Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
• Best RPG: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood & Wine
• Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI
• Best Sports/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3
• Best Game Direction: Overwatch
• Best Art Direction: Inside
• Best Narrative: Uncharted 4
• Best Esports Team: Cloud9
• Best Esports player: Marcelo “Coldzera” David (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Best Performance: Nolan North, Uncharted 4
• Trending Gamer: Boogie2988
• Most Anticipated Game: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Bad Santa 2, Try Not To Get Tea Bagged

Yesterday I went out to go see Bad Santa 2 with my friends. It's an enjoyable Christmas season movie. Even though it was still November (29th) when I saw it I definitely felt the Christmas spirit. It's not exactly a smart, serious, or even good movie, but a movie none the less. If you saw the first one the same characters come back with the Bad Santa dude, the fat dumb kid, the midget black dude, and Santa's mother. The story revolves around Santa, the midget, and his mother working at a benefit place for the poor and stealing money from their safe.

This movie makes use of foul language a lot. I think every other sentence has the word fuck in it. It's pretty stupid. But its still not as stupid as Sausage Party, that movie was super lame. Even though this movie definitely isn't very good I can say that it definitely delivers in terms of laughs.

The laughs are what makes this movie a franchise. At the end the black midget is stuck in a hospital bed from being run over by the mom and the Bad Santa dude totally teabags him and takes pictures of it. He then proceeds to upload them to the internet. Hilarious. They showed a pair of fake balls on his face in the pictures. If you didn't know, tea bagging is when a guy puts his balls on another guys' face. The ultimate troll and disrespect move in fps (first person shooter) games, although it does seem a little gay.

Try not to get tea bagged physically or figuratively folks. There were a lot of other funny moments but the tea bagging at the end is the only thing worth writing about honestly. That was really funny.

There's a certain degree of seriousness to the movie as well. In the beginning the Bad Santa dude tried to kill himself using his oven but when that took too long to heat up he tried hanging himself. But then the dumb fat kid came inside his house. And that's when the movie picks up. 

I wasn't expecting a work of art when I went to see this movie but I did leave with a smile on my face. If a movie can do that what more can you ask?

Time Will Tell How Much I Love You

Yesterday I saw the new Doctor Strange movie. It's terrific! I enjoyed it more than the last Avengers film and Captain America film. Marvel has done it again. Let me give you the good, the bad, and the nerdy. If you haven't seen the film and don't want any spoilers stop reading here.

First, the good. This movie is everything you'd expect from a Doctor Strange origins film. Benedict Cumberbatch does a great job portraying Strange as a brilliant doctor who is full of himself. Even the love interest in this movie doesn't get much love from him, at least not until the end. The best part of any Doctor Strange origin story for me is definitely the beginning. It starts with him losing control of his hands in a car crash. And it gets better from there.

Later, he realizes no Western medicine or surgery can fix his hands but he thinks if he goes out to Nepal for this special treatment he can gain use of his hands again and go back to being a brilliant surgeon. He learns about magic and other dimensions and such. He becomes an apprentice to this British female master-who's bald. Enter epic magic training montage.

The way they introduce everything in the first half of the film is brilliant. If you didn't know anything about Doctor Strange well now you do because of the beginning of this movie. Honestly most Marvel fans already know this stuff though but this is a great fresh reminder of who and what he is.

Now, for the bad. The magic in this movie was very cool but most of the fighting was done using melee attacks, energy weapons (magic sword), and not very much ranged magic attacks. I was expecting like actual ranged spells like in an rpg game or something but instead we got energy weapons made from magic and them using the cgi magic weapons, which were all mostly melee weapons like swords. I wish they used more actual magic in the fighting. Like in Warcraft. The magic used was all cgi trickery that looked super fake. But its not like they could do anything do make it look real.

Now for the nerdy. Stan Lee makes an appearance in the film reading the book The Doors of Perception. He's all laughing while reading it, pretty funny stuff. At the end of the movie we learn that Doctor Strange controls time using an Infinity Stone, which we know is linked to everything in the Marvel Universe. Thanos has an Infinity Gauntlet which basically gives him the powers of God. The fact that Doctor Strange has one makes him one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel canon.

Lastly, I liked the sentimentality from Strange's love interest. She gave him a watch that said time will tell how much I love you. Pretty sappy but very beautiful. The ending of the movie was amazing. Basically he put himself and this evil dark god (Drommamu) in an infinite time loop where Strange kept getting killed forever until this god agreed to leave and never come back. They could've been stuck in there for an eternity while time remained still on Earth. Pretty fascinating concept for a children's movie. Also, the fact that he endured death for an eternity is very dark for a Marvel movie.

Great movie! The ending credits showed Strange agreeing to help find Thor's father Odin. And the other ending was the goody black dude sorcerer becoming a bad guy sorcerer. Interesting.

Don't miss this one this Holiday season

Black Friday Loot

So I ended up going out with friends after a super hectic work day of 1pm to 1030pm on Thanksgiving. Glad the rush won't be back until Christmas, New Years, and New Years Eve. My friends and I went out to Best Buy and a few stores at the mall. I ended up getting some good loot. Everybody loves loot!

First, we went to Best Buy where there were so many people! I decided to pick up a wireless Xbox one controller there. My bro got an Xbox one a while ago and his request for me to able to play it was that I have my own controller. It's a plain black wireless one. Got it for $40. Could've gotten it cheaper online but I like buying my products in person and getting it right away sometimes.

Later, we went to the mall mainly to check out and lounge around at Target. There was a ton of people there looking to buy Apple products. I ended up buying Doom (physical box copy, PC version) for only $25! Pretty great deal. I heard great things about Doom's single player campaign so I thought this was a great deal. I was going to get Fallout 4 but my bro has it on his Steam account. All I have to do is share my account with his and I can play it anytime. Fallout 4 was only $20 there. Maybe I should've bought both! :D

Even later, (during Black Friday daytime hours) I went to CD Trader (my local record shoppe). There was a lot of new stuff there but nothing (rock or metal) that really peaked my interest so I decided to get an old jazz record. I went with jazz guitarist John Scofield's 1992 album Meant To Be which features Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Marc Johnson on bass, and Bill Stewart on drums. I'm listening to it right now. Scofield is a master of chorus-infused jazz guitar. All his lines have great happening rhythm. Even though he's white he's a brotha with a lot of rhythm. Haha. But that's a discussion for another post.

I'm glad I didn't go crazy buying too many things that I couldn't afford. There will be more things to buy in the next couple weeks. For sure I will pick up Warhammer Vermintide. I've been wanting to play that game for a long time. Think of it as a medieval Left 4 Dead in Warhammer universe fighting against giant rats. Sounds funny but the game is great. I also was interested in Battlefield 1 but we'll have to wait and see because Christmas will be here pretty fast. Better save up that money for my family and friends too.

The deals are still going on right now online and in stores. Check it out. Buy yourself something nice. You've earned it sport!

Black Friday Is Upon Us

Today is Thanksgiving! For me its a regular work day and I probably won't be able to eat any turkey until sometime after 10 pm. Rip.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about Black Friday and stuff. There's so much people could buy but money is always a limiting factor of course. I wanted to buy a drum machine rather soon but the funds don't look good for it. I can however pick up some great games on sale for good prices. I just found out that my bro got an Xbox one so I was thinking of getting myself a controller and perhaps a game. Not sure what one though. I prefer gaming on pc so I'm not really sure but my ideas were possibly Fallout 4, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Battlefiled 1, things like that. But these are all games I could get on pc.

My bro already has Halo 5 and Titanfall 2 so maybe I should just settle for just the controller and getting some pc games instead. I'm definitely gonna pick up Warhammer Vermintide ($15 on Steam) and possibly Battlefield 1 ($40 on Origin). That would be great.

I really wanted to pick up the drum machine this Friday and hopefully get some good deals but the money is just not right. Gotta save up and hope to buy it next week I suppose.

There's a lot of great sales for gaming right now. Just check out Steam, Origin, Humble Bundle, Amazon, and other online sites. Everybody is doing great deals. On Friday I will definitely check out Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, and maybe even Guitar Center with my buddies. Last year we got a good haul. My friend got a Wii U with Splatoon and Smash 4 and I got Star Wars Battlefront.


Happy holidays

Holidays Are Here But Not Quite Plus Gaming Decay And Band Update

Just wanted to do a little personal blog post tonight about the holidays coming up and life in general. Not everybody is a super big fan of the holidays but I think they are ok. For me the holidays begin at the end of this month, around Thanksgiving and then forward unto (darkness! :D) to Black Friday. For me Black Friday is a big deal because I always buy something awesome for myself that day.

This year I'm planning on buying Battlefield 1 from Fry's, Bestbuy, or Gamestop. My hope is that the game drops in price for Black Friday. I know its still a relatively new game but c'mon now its been out for a bit.

Also, looking forward to Thanksgiving. I'm only working four hours that day and its a early day shift so I'm looking forward to working and coming home early and hanging out with the family.

Christmas is going to be interesting. Last Christmases I got a lot of people at work stuff but I think this year I'm just gonna focus on getting my friends and family gifts lol. It got pretty expensive previous Christmases and this year I need to focus on the right gifts for the people in my inner circle.

Been gaming quite a bit as well. Sombra will probably be on the live Overwatch server in time for Thanksgiving, one could only hope. She will bring in a lot of interesting team plays to the game but she will also invigorate the game and get the casual players playing more again. As much as I love Overwatch I think I've been consumed by it in a way. I'll probably take a Sabbatical from it and play other games, write songs, and record them.

I've been trying to balance my home life effectively. I game in the early part of the day and practice guitar after, then I go into work. Sometimes I end up just hanging out with my friends and going to work but those days are like my weekends because I don't get weekends off.

My friends and I have a band but we have no name yet and we don't know any songs other than the Adventure Time theme song. The guys have a way to go with their playing but I was thinking about showing them some simple songs and seeing if they can play it all in time together. I'm thinking The Ramones or Black Sabbath, maybe both. That's the plan for this Wednesday. The other guitarist is new but he's getting the hang of it through my lessons but our bass player needs work on his timing as well as his general technique. In time I think they could be good musicians. Longer time will tell if they could become great musicians. We don't have a drummer yet but I'm thinking of using programmed drums until we get some songs and material going. Which should be pretty soon.  

So far I've just been showing them basic chords for the guitar player, rhythm and timing for the bass player, and a lot of technical technique things that would cost them a shit ton of money if they took lessons. I'm actually a great teacher. I think if I never go anywhere career-wise with music I'll probably settle for just being a teacher. I'd even be down to go back to college (probably community college) to get a music degree for that. Who knows.

After work every night I try to listen to new music-any kind but mostly jazz, classical, or metal. I write here for the blog most nights. I do it mostly for myself as a record of all the cool stuff I do and am into. I think its cool that I get a ton of views from all over the world, thanks for reading whoever you are! Its a terrific feeling knowing that my blog gets good traffic.

As you can see life is good. And that ain't not bad. 

Keep reading and if you like what you see feel free to leave a comment

Trump Defeats Hillary

Today was unprecedented. Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. The polls all got it wrong. The news stations all got it wrong. It was a regular work day for me but a lot of momentum built up to this election day and I was excited throughout the entire day, even checking the news on the break room TV all day for any updates. I was prepared for a victory of the first ever female American President.

But that's not what happened. Trump ended up winning. During all the time up to today I thought he was a joke and that Hillary was going to win in a landslide. Needless to say, I'm quite shocked. Still am as I'm of this post. I'm not necessarily angry but I am not happy either. Either way life will go on for me and I'll need to do all the necessary things I need to do to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

But then again there's something odd about all of this. How could so many people vote for a fear mongering, racist, misogynistic, asshole? The answer is clear. People are afraid and uncertain about their future. They don't want another Clinton in the White House because Clinton's represent the old way and she comes with a shit ton of baggage. Many of my young associates didn't vote this election because they said both candidates were shit.

Well, if you chose not to vote then in my opinion you don't get to complain about the country's future. I believe as an American it's your duty to vote. While I do think Hillary and Trump aren't the best Presidential candidates (I had my eyes on Bernie) I do think Hillary was the lesser of two evils. Even if she's a baddie too at least she's a baddie with Presidential experience and a hard working political record. Trump, on the other hand is just an asshole with a loud mouth. The stuff he's said during his campaign is all mostly evil shit.

It's possible that he will lead us all to ruin. It's possible we've already reached the peak of human evolution and potential and voting for Trump will bring us backwards. But the stupid part of me thinks Trump could be a great President. He could somehow get the right people in Congress to work together and get a lot of work done. I wish him good luck on that.

Even though I thought of Trump as a joke I gotta hand it to him that he's come very far with no political experience and being a straight up hater. It will take a village to show him how to lead and organize people and the country. I don't think he knows what he's doing but I think with the right political aides and advisers as well as senators backing him up I think he can learn the job as he goes. It will be political improvising with the fate of the country. But I do think that it's possible for him to do it. At least that's what I want to believe.

He could just bring the country to its knees and cause more division, hate, fear mongering, all that jazz. He's been great at doing that so far. Let's hope he quits the bullshit he's been spewing during the campaign and actually starts learning how to be a leader.

If not, then God help us all.

New Overwatch Map Revealed, Eichenwalde

Overwatch is about to get its first post-launch map. Its called Eichenwalde and its a castle village in Germany with a medieval vibe. Blizzard revealed the map at Gamescom in...wait for it....Germany! Good call Blizz!

It’s an Assault/Escort hybrid map, and it’s got an Omnic Crisis (read: robot apocalypse) related story attached:

“The site of one of the most famous battles during the Omnic Crisis, it was here that the leader of the Crusaders, Balderich von Alder, and a handful of his best soldiers made a last stand against an advancing automaton army. Outnumbered and outgunned, they were ultimately slain during the resulting combat. However, thanks to their valiant efforts, the German military was able to push back the omnic offensive and win the fight.”

The goal of the attacking team is to reclaim Balderich's remains-which seems a bit odd but funny especially considering that you'll be doing it over and over again. Why would heroes want his body anyway? Maybe there's some secret hidden technology in his Reinhardt-esque armor. Check out the map video here. This is gonna be tight yall! 

Suicide Squad

So I finally got around to seeing Suicide Squad with my friends. Because my friend works at Amc Theaters I got to see it for free. I've been seeing all the summer blockbusters for free. Special shoutout thank you to my friend!

The movie got a lot of bad press in the gaming community and a lot of people told me personally that they didn't like it as well. I thought it was great fun! Nothing too serious-I could compare it to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the sense that both are fun action movies with comedic undertones. Let me tell you about my favorite scenes and what I liked about this film.

When the super villains are being introduced by Amanda Waller we see glimpses into their past and what makes them tick. This was especially great because I didn't know who Deadshot or Captain Boomerang were. For Deadshot we see a scene where Batman comes to take him in-in the presence of his daughter. Deadshot decides to go peacefully instead of shooting Batman, because of the love for his daughter.

For Harley Quinn we see that she was an Arkam Asylum psychiatrist designated to the Joker, played by Jared Leto. She finds herself falling in love and becoming obsessed with the Joker. Their relationship was a strong one. Joker tried to get Harley to kill herself in one scene (by having her jump in a pool of chemicals) but instead we see Joker jump into the chemicals and save her. Although he was crazy enough to give her electric shock therapy he truly loved her.

Jared Leto was great in this movie. He portrays the Joker less as a psychopath and more as a crime boss. There's this scene where he's sitting in his room and all around him are all these knives placed carefully in position. He showed a wide variety of emotion for the Joker. It was hard to know to expect because I think of the Joker in the movies as Heath Ledger Joker and its to compare to that. But in a sense I think he did a great job.

My favorite character in the movie was Katana. She's this Japanese woman with a sword that contains souls of all the people the sword has slain. She wears a mask and had on this cool leather jac ket and outfit. She even only spoke in Japanese, a nice touch. She's pretty unknown in the DC movie universe so it was cool to see that they featured her. She was an ally to Waller that worked for the government and was there to make sure none of the super villains got out of line.

The story was fun but probably not the most engaging. Basically Enchantress (this witch) gets loose and creates this megaweapon designed to wreck havoc on the Earth-and it does! The Enchantress creates this army of like black goop head-men that the Suicide Squad have to kill in order to get to her. Once there, they have to deal with her brother-this demonic entity thing. Thankfully, they had Diablo ( ese, villain, shoots fire) turn into his true form and he was able to push it into a corner where they used explosives to take it down. His improved form was this giant fire monster. It was pretty cool.

I liked how they portrayed Harley Quinn as super crazy but also sexy. It was like a peep show with her. In addition, I think Katana was pretty cute too. The movie at least had a few cute girls. The movie is light-hearted enough for families with kids to enjoy and has enough action to keep the super hero fanboys watching. For me the movie was a solid 8 out of 10. Not amazing or a must see. But a fun addition to the DC catalog. They finally know what they're doing with their movies. Can't wait to see more from the franchise. I would be totally down for a Katana movie about her origins story. 

Laguna Beach vacation

This past weekend I got to go on a mini-vacation to Laguna Beach. We stayed at this five room house but the owner and her two roommates were there too. The drive there was super long. It took two hours just to get out of LA and something like an hour and half to get there! The drive was super annoying but playing Fire Emblem made it more fun. The purpose of the trip was to meet up with my dad's friends, my brother's friend, and to have a fantastic time. Mission accomplished!

The first night we got there we ended up meeting with my dad's friends. They were nice folks from New York-a place I've been trying to visit to check out their jazz scene. We had this restaurant in mind but it was an hour wait and it was already ten at night. So we ended up eating at GG's Mediterranean restaurant. I can remember it because there was this cute Asian girl that was serving people outside. Anyways, I ordered a Seafood Spaghetti plate that came with mussels, calamari, and shrimp. It was great! The sauce wasn't too acidic which is a big factor for me when it comes to spaghetti. We had a great time telling jokes and sharing stories.

In the morning the next day I ended up playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. By the time it was eleven am I had completed the game. It took me a long time and I was playing on normal but I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I don't play too many single player games so it was a big deal for me. I plan on starting Birthright soon. I'm going to play it on hard mode to put my strategic skills to the test.

The next day was a busy one. We left around noon and went to San Juan Capistrano's Mission Basicila. For me it was the highlight of the trip. The church was beautiful with all this painted glass for the stations of the cross. I was moved by how the guitar player was leading everyone in prayer through song. I walked up to the front to join everyone without thinking. You could say that I felt the power of the Holy Spirit, if you believe in that sort of thing. I'm not really a religious person but I do have a Zen-like attitude towards pretty much everything I do. This guides me through stressful as well as peaceful situations in life. Also, the acoustic guitar was pretty sweet!

After that we had lunch inside this stationary fancy train at this place called the Vintage. In the old days fancy rich people would have lunch in moving trains as they travel around the country. Sounds like a good time don't it? The funny thing is that as fancy as that place was I had wings and they were playing smooth jazz. Pretty funny.

After that we went to the beach. There were so many beautiful women in bikinis and in general just sexy women all over this trip. We saw a lot of surfers riding medium-large sized waves. Parking was a nightmare but once we got settled and walked around I enjoyed it. I didn't swim or anything because by the time we were there (five pm) high tide set in and the waves were super strong. After walking around a while we sat down and chilled. I sat next to this young woman who never looked up from her cellphone for the entire time we were sitting down. People and their cellphones man...

That night my brother helped me out with a problem I was having on my laptop where Heroes of the Storm was lagging so hard to the point that it became unplayable. The solution was to update all my Blizzard games not just Heroes and that fixed it. Sometimes updating is all you need to fix things. Unless it tells you to upgrade to Windows 10. In that case upgrading isn't the fix. So that night I played a bit of Heroes. In addition, my brother brought his Xbox360 so I played a bit of Call of Duty Black Ops 2-my favorite CoD game. I went all sniper (svu-as) and the best game I had I went 20-10. Not bad for an amateur sniper who doesn't play the series.

The last day I woke up drenched in sweat. Should've left the door leading outside open. Oops. The thing that kind of sucked about the whole trip was that it was super hot. A moist humid kind of heat. The opposite of the Valley where its more of a dry heat. The owner of the house made breakfast for us. What a nice woman. I talked to her about music and stuff. She was surprised that I knew all the stuff from the 60s and 70s.

We packed up all our stuff then went to lunch at Sam Woo's (Chinese restaurant) in Rowland Heights-about thirty minutes away from the vacation house. My brother's friend was chill and his wife was really nice. He did say that Overwatch was for casuals. Although he said no offense I don't think Overwatch is a casual game. He was making the case that Battleborn takes more skill and has a higher skill cap than Overwatch. Even if that's the case I think Overwatch is the more interesting and fun game. He's been playing Battleborn with my bro lately.

In terms of food we had duck, honey walnut shrimp, and all these other goodies! We still have leftovers. I just ate some earlier. We talked for a super long time. About anything and everything. I liked how my bro's friends' wife was a geek too. She was telling me all about the new Killing Joke movie and how they were going to see the new Star Trek later that evening. We also talked about some Ryan Reynolds movies because someone brought up Dead Pool. She was also excited for Suicide Squad-which comes out soon.

All in all the trip was great. I didn't want to go because I thought I wouldn't have time to hang out with my friends. One of whom was only in town for a few days because he's a trucker and had to get back on the road. It was his birthday and I got to see him the night I got back. We gave him some birthday gifts. He got some Xbox1 games-Sunset Overdrive, Fallout 4, as well as a Deadpool shirt. Our other friend threw down to buy us all pizza. It was a great night hanging out with our original core friendship circle. 

To put it in funny terms I was living high on the hog. And this all happened in only three days ( this past Friday-Sunday). Life is damn good. Sometimes you gotta take a look back and be happy about how blessed you are. Now is one of those times. 

Happy New Year

     Just wanted to do a short post to welcome in the New Year. I worked until midnight so I didn't get to countdown the New Year or go partying with my friends. But it was still good. It was a quiet and reserved New Year for me. Lucky me that I'm off today so I'm planning on resting and taking it easy. I ordered some new work pants that I desperately needed and thankfully they came through Amazon Prime tonight. Everything is going well. 2015 was a great year for me. You could even say that it was one of my best years since High School. Moving to California changed my life but it was rough at first. Now I've got a lot of friends, a job that I've been at for 2 and a half years, and a loving family here and back in my home state. Stay positive in 2016. If I've learned anything over these past few years it is to always stay positive. Eventually you get to the point where you're like a Zen master, even though I don't practice Buddhism or Transcendental Meditation. It's just a state of mind really. I guess what I'm trying to say is that life has been good. There's some things on my mind for the New Year that I've been thinking about. Like should I get back into playing music on a consistent basis and stuff. Music was originally my main goal in life but I've kind of pushed it into the corner of my living room (literally) and focused more on gaming, computers, blogging, and media stuff instead. I've realized that I'll probably never make it as a musician without getting proper training. There's no way I can teach myself and become as good as people like Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck. Another turning point in me quitting practicing was that my guitar teacher had to stop teaching me due to job obligations. Even a great musician has to work a 9-5. Kind of sad that he has to do that but he has to make a living to survive. I guess the conclusion that I'm getting it is that I have to find other things to do and get into. Like maybe get involved in gaming stuff like writing for a gaming blog or magazine, game tester, and other stuff like that. If push comes to shove maybe I'll take up some kind of computer training at the local community college. I've always been interested in computers and I think I can handle programming at a basic level. My brother has already showed some success in learning computers by passing the first A+ Certification Test so maybe I should take inspiration from him and follow in his footsteps. But these are all just ideas. Sometimes the best action is inaction. It's been a great 2015 and I hope you all have a happy 2016!