Focus Pocus Part II: A Philosophical view

Howdy yall, what's up? I thought I'd write a bit more about what I discussed in the previous post, which can be viewed here. I explained how I was in a funk after vacation and how I couldn't get anything done, mainly my reading and guitar playing, in a lull. 

Well its been almost a month since I've been back, things have been going good for me. Work has been pretty insane, retail, over 40 hours a week. I'm working from today (Thursday) until next week (Friday) with no days off in between. The crazy thing is that although the thought of that is a little depressing, I'm actually getting a lot done in the sense that I've divided up all my time for rest and only the essentials. What's that pray-tell? 

The essentials for me is reading, writing, and music. Once I realized that I have no time to play video games probably ever! it was a pretty hard thing to observe, and then to get over. I used to love video games but now there's simply no time for it if I'm going to become a better writer, keep reading great science fiction (The Difference Engine) and philosophy (Adam Smith), and learn more classical and jazz guitar pieces (so much practice). Its a full time job all on its own, forget about the retail job, this is my job! 

There's a philosophy to this. Breaking everything down in your life to just the bare essentials. What do you want to accomplish in one day? What do you want to accomplish in a lifetime? Practice it one day at a time until you achieve complete and total mastery. 

My job gets in the way but if I take away the video gaming and stop spending so much time procrastinating on Facebook or playing video games, I can actually get a lot done in a day. Because I stay up very late (sometimes till 4 or 5, reading on my Kindle, which I got from a co-worker for free, retail is great sometimes) I can get a lot of reading done late at night after my late night shift. Everything's turning up Millhouse.

Happiness is a very tangible thing. Happiness is practicing guitar every day, reading, and writing. Find your passion and stick to it. Work is a necessary by-product of monetary situation, but it doesn't dictate who I am or who I will be. The future is ours to decide! 

Wii U Gamepad Repaired and Xenoblade Chronicles X

     

   
     So a while ago I sent my Wii U Gamepad to a Nintendo repair outfit. The repair outfit turned out to be someplace nearby in Chatsworth, thankfully not like in Japan or something crazy like that. I think it took maybe about 1-2 weeks I kind of lost track of time but it was pretty quick. The best part is that they fixed it free of charge because its still within the one year manufacturer's warranty. Lucky me that I just bought my Wii U in September.
     Now that I have the Gamepad back the first thing I did was start playing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I gotta say that this game looks amazing on the Wii U, probably the most graphic intensive game on the entire system. It also has the biggest open world out of all Wii U games. This is the quintessential open world rpg experience on the Wii U. The story is pretty awesome. Basically, some aliens attacked Earth and humanity escaped on a giant space vessel, only to run into more aliens and crash land on this planet called Mira. There are lots of fierce animals here and humanity has rebuilt using their skell technology (giant mech robots) and called their new home New Los Angeles. Xenoblade Chronicles X has some sick classic JRPG fighting mechanics similar to the original Xenoblade Chronicles game but what the game offers in cut scenes and character animations are very dry, probably a byproduct of a not very good English translation. The thing about it is that the first Xenoblade Chronicles game had a great English translation. All the characters sounded great, and I could understand certain feelings that their voice could portray. In this new Xenoblade game all the dialogue is pretty robotic and 'lacks feeling'. By lacks feeling I mean that the actors didn't do a good job emoting through the characters. Sometimes this happens. I don't know, maybe its just because I'm only level 8 and still in the beginning of the game, I'm not sure. I'm hoping that once the game starts moving along, the voice actors deliver a better performance.
     I can't wait to get my Skell but I don't think that's going to be for many, many hours into the game. Although this game doesn't seem to deliver in terms of voice acting, the graphics and overall story seems to be more interesting than the first Xenoblade Chronicles. Another reason why this game doesn't impress me so much is that your character that you created doesn't ever talk in the game. This was such a stupid idea! Mind you that they did this despite the fact that you can give your character a signature voice. What was the point if your character can't even talk? It's just another thing I don't like about this title. However, the gameplay is absolutely fantastic. Every battle is super fun and the mechanics are pretty much the same as the original Xenoblade. However, I find healing a bit harder to do. So far there is no dedicated healer and I'm not sure if this game features any. This is a great add on to my list of Wii U titles, which include Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8. I'll write more about this title as I get farther in the game. Until then, stay happy and stay gaming!

Update 1.08

     Life has been good. I'm getting good hours at work, making that extra bread. As ZZ Top sing, "Just got payed, got me a pocket full of change", I think that every week when I get my check. As a customer at my work likes to say every time I see him, "Life is good". Usually when I say that to customers they usually say, "It's better than the alternative". It seems rather drab to say that but I get it almost every day. Here's an update on what's been up lately. 
      For one thing I've been doing my usual schedule at work working until 1 in the morning. So I've been having long nights, staying up until 3 or later. Most of the time I'm just listening to free jazz, writing for this blog, and looking up things online like email, games, and twitch streams. It's a super fun night life. At the end of the night before I go to bed I play Wii U (Mario Kart & Smash), and sometimes 3DS (Xenoblade, Monster Hunter, & Smash). I would say the best part is just listening to the music. There's something about listening to jazz that just gets me inspired. Jazz has become my favorite style of music. I would say I'm not even really a fan of metal anymore. Although I am impressed by Animals as Leader's Tosin Abasi, he is a beast guitar player. I wouldn't become better than him even if I was practicing 4 hours a day. Which leads me to my next point.
     Today I had my guitar lesson with my teacher. It had been about 2 weeks since we last had a lesson so it was a good return to learning. We jammed on John Denver's Country Road, jammed a funky blues, improvised over Four on Six, and started playing a bit of Billie's Bounce by Charlie Parker. I couldn't quite sight read it that good but I'll get there. I haven't been putting in a lot of time on the guitar but I have been playing here and there. Its hard to devote time to the guitar with all the new gaming stuff on the horizon, especially next month with Xenoblade Chronicles X, Starcraft II Legacy of the Void, and Starwars Battlefront 3 coming out. I'm going to have to start a practice schedule every day in order to keep up with my lessons. No point in taking lessons if I'm not practicing everyday. But I digress. Let's talk about games!
      Gaming has been great lately. There was a new patch in Smash, patch 1.1.2, which adds the Super Mario Maker stage and the Pirate stage from Wind Waker. They're both pretty cool. I really like the Super Mario Maker stage but I don't see it becoming viable for tournaments, although the omega version of the stage looks just fine for that purpose. Nintendo also balanced some of the characters again. Every time they do this its like Smash is becoming a different game, which is good and bad in a way. It's good because we get to experience buffs and nerfs to certain characters but sometimes its good when a game is done and completed and there doesn't have to be anymore updates. We live in an era in gaming where everything needs to be updated. Its a blessing and a curse.
     Not only was there a patch for Smash but there was a big patch for Heroes of the Storm, another one of my favorite games at the moment. They added some balance updates for the characters but they also added a new hero, Lieutenant Morales, the Medic from Starcraft Broodwar. That ain't even the best part of this story folks. They added a skin that makes Morales look like the Apothecary from Warhammer 40k's Dawn of War series! That's it at the top. I don't know how Blizzard got the licensing to do something like that but its arguably the best skin in the game. So in total now I have the Novazon Nova skin, Medic Uther, and the Apothecary Morales. Not too shabby.
     Lastly, as I sit here listening to free jazz I'm reminded that this is suppose to be a blog about music. But in some ways it has transcended music and has become an almost personal blog, something that I did not intend nor think think was possible because I always thought writing about my life and what I do was super boring and that nobody would want to read about that. And somehow I was wrong because the blog has been getting lots of views, every month, and every day. Thanks for reading folks! I will eventually make a return to writing more about music-particularly free jazz, which is mostly what I'm listening to these days. Au revoir.

What I've been up to lately

    

     Aw, man. What have I been up to lately? Lots of things. For one thing there's work. Other than that there's all the good stuff. For one thing I've been scouring and discovering new jazz music. Recently this has been in form of free-jazz. Right now I'm really into this sax player David S. Ware, who died in 2012. Read all about David S. Ware here. His work is very solid and reminds me of John Coltrane's free-jazz period. Also, his claim to fame is that he used to work with experimental jazz pianist Cecil Taylor. In addition, Ware used to work with the same consistent line-up for something like twenty years, pretty extraordinary.
     Also, I've been working on my own jazz playing on the guitar quite a bit. But I am losing faith in playing music in general. The fact that I'm not in a real band means I have no incentive to really dig in and practice for hours on end. There is this old clarinet player that I'm currently working with but I find the project to be kind of difficult because all we have is clarinet and guitar. You can't really do too much with that format. It would be better if I played bass, because at least there would be something with more of a constant rhythmic pulse, rather than just guitar chords. I'm actually thinking of buying a cheap Fender bass and using that to play with him instead of guitar. I'm not really sure about our project because the kind of jazz that this guy likes is way old. I'm more of a jazz modernist, I like everything from the Charlie Parker 50s bebop era to today with free-jazz. I don't mind dixieland and the jazz of the 1920s but that's really not my thing. This guy comes from the dixieland school of jazz, and is even in a dixieland jazz band. So were really coming from different backgrounds. Anyways, we'll see how things go with it. I'll keep practicing guitar everyday but I am generally becoming disillusioned with playing music lately because I feel like I'm going nowhere with it. It really sucks! I'm thinking about attending a community college just for the fact that I can play in the school jazz band there and actually find a use for my playing, maybe find other musicians, and start a group. That's the goal because so far just relying on trying to find people online hasn't worked for me.
     In other news, there's gaming. I've been playing a ton of Heroes of the Storm. That's been my main game for months now. I even stream it on twitch.tv when I have time during the day. The cool thing about it is that the actual game is being released in June, just five more days! Its been in beta for about six long months, and its been the best beta that I've ever been apart of. Also, I've started playing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare on the pc again just because I like to do the ten minute team deathmatch rounds. In other gaming news, I'm really looking forward to this Blizzard Game Overwatch, a first person shooter game that's suppose to come out in the future, maybe next year. The picture above is from Overwatch. And then, there's the new Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, the last of the Starcraft real time strategy series. That one's suppose to come out next year as well I believe. A lot of stuff from Blizzard when it comes to pc gaming. In addition, I've been playing a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles on the 3DS. And also I've kind of become a leader in organizing times for when me and two of my other buddies from work play Super Smash Brothers for the 3DS online together.
     Lastly, I've been watching this anime called Steingate. Right now I'm about halfway through it. It's about a mad scientist who is discovering time travel. It's unlike any anime I've ever seen. Also, I've been keeping up on the new Chicago PD episodes, I'm really into that show. But the main thing I would have to say that is going on, is the music. It's always the music, isn't it?

Music I've been listening to lately

     

     Been listening to a lot of cool stuff lately. I've been getting more and more into free-jazz. So I've been listening a lot to people like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Peter Brotzman, Ken Vandermark, Albert Ayler, and this chick from Chicago named Matana Roberts. Those are all pretty heavy duty free-jazz artists. But I would say mainly Peter Brotzmann is the free-jazz guy I've been listening to the most. He really has a lot of personality to his playing. When he plays a note on the saxophone, you can really tell its him playing. Also, some of his playing nods to Coltrane when he's really feeling it. A great free-jazz composer I've been listening to is Wadada Leo Smith, a great trumpet player who plays in free contexts.
      Other things that have attracted my attention is video-game music. My favorite video game theme is the Brinstar theme from Super Metroid, an old super nintendo game. Also, I'm really into the music of the nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. There's a lot of guitar in the music of that game, guitars with a lot of distortion, very progressive tracks with synthesizers, bass, and drums. The guitar riffs are very intricate and precise, very heavy-metal but more of a Japanese style of heavy metal rather than the death metal stuff of America. Also, I'm really into the music from the Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Brothers, and Final Fantasy 7. I got into the game music because it reminded me of playing these old games as a kid, and also you can't always just listen to jazz.
     Lastly, I've been listening to metal and death-metal stuff as well. In terms of death metal, I just picked up the new Faceless album, Autotheism. It's a pretty good effort from a band that keeps reforming with new members. There's a jazz vibe to the album, and there's clean vocals to add to the screaming. In addition I've been listening to Tosin Abasi's (guitarist of the instrumental metal band Animals as Leaders) sideproject T.R.A.M, a jazzy sort of rock band that has a guy that plays saxophone and flute. It's a great band and of all the music I've been listening to lately I would recommend T.R.A.M the most. Their first and only album is pretty darn good. Also, last week I picked up the new St.Vincent album and this CD by this band called Angra, a Brazilian metal band. So yeah, free-jazz, video-game music, and death-metal.

Nintendo 3DS XL, Xenoblade, and Super Smash Brothers

    

      I threw down some serious cash on a brand new 3DS XL. I'd been wanting to play the new Super Smash Brothers for 3DS for sometime. I kept asking my brother if I could just use his 3DS and play Super Smash Brothers on it but he kept saying no! I got my own 3DS XL last week. In addition to the hand-held system I picked up the Nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. So, right after I bought it I couldn't wait to try it out so instead of going home I went to Starbucks and configured it and put in Xenoblade. Super Smash Brothers I ordered through the mail so it didn't come until late that night. Anyways, the 3D options in Xenoblade looked terrific. It looks like Wii-U graphics (at best) and at worst PS2 graphics. I'm actually really happy with the system and what it offers. So far I haven't played too much of Xenoblade but I have been playing the heck out of Super Smash Brothers. I must have unlocked all the characters in one day, it was super quick. But the best part of it all is that Super Smash is an online game. I can fight people across the world in four player free for all, two on two teams, and 1 on 1 matches with two stock (lives). I only play For Glory, where all your wins and losses count and get added up and recorded. I have found that the best players always have Japanese names.

     My favorite character is Shulk, the main character from Xenoblade. He has this sword, called the Monado, that has these special abilities that you can use with. You just tap a button and the sword can change colors, giving you different abilities. In addition, Shulk has a powerful counter where he blocks an attack and hits the enemy twice afterwards with the Monado. Other characters I like are Fox from Starfox, Donkey Kong, Marth from Fire Emblem, Lucina from Fire Emblem, and Captain Falcon. The game has plenty of characters so you really can't get bored. Also, this is the kind of fighting game that is very easy to get good at. The combos are easy to learn unlike games like the new Mortal Kombat X. So far, I'm loving it. I hope soon I will be able to 1v1 my mates. Xenoblade is a great game too, just haven't found the time to invest in a jrgp, been working too many nights. The story in Xenoblade seems stellar. These robot type alien gods fought and now the world is completely fucked. Overall the system is solid and my brother has a ton of games I can play on it too.  

     Lastly, you have to put into account that the 3DS XL is completely brand new and just came out a short time ago. It's pretty much the exact same thing as the 3DS except bigger for bigger hands like mines. It just makes pushing the buttons easy and it doesn't hurt to have a slightly bigger screen to look at as well. Also, this just in: Local man really feeling it.