A Series of Ramblings

Blogging when I remember to

Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

The Beauty of Monster Hunter

I’m probably over 100 hours into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and I’m not even that far into the game yet. Part of that has been my personal “grinding quests over and over again for certain item drops to craft armor/weapons I want” thing that most people who’ve ever played a game with item drops knows the pain of. However, I’m not hating the grind. Maybe because there’s a lot in the game itself that makes it feel less like a grind and more like an exploration. Read the rest of this entry »


Experiencing the Playstation Experience

Living in Vegas afforded me incredibly easy access to the inaugural Playstation Experience. I bought my tickets the day they went on sale, and even though I eventually found out that not only did they go up for half price on Groupon or that I could have a free ticket due to connections, I feel it was worth every penny. The event itself was a mix of Sony at E3 and PAX: part preview hype machine, part marketing, part fan event. And I loved it. Read the rest of this entry »


Mental Illness doesn’t discriminate: The death of Robin Williams

The recent death of Robin Williams is a horrible loss. For his family, his friends, his fans, truly, the whole world. Finding out it was a suicide saddened me, but knowing of his history with addiction, depression, and other issues, it didn’t shock me. “But why? Why would a man so loved and adored who had so much going for him be driven to suicide?” Honestly, that’s probably the worst part. A man idolized and revered, who even sought help, still was ultimately consumed by a hurt that most people can’t even fathom. That’s the kicker: mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar, anxiety, et all don’t care who you are, how much you make, how much people care about you. It has the power to overtake and ruin the best of humankind. Read the rest of this entry »


I Ate That: Curry Zen and Sweets Raku

The cool part about living in Las Vegas is that if you like food, there’s tons of it here. Good food! Interesting food! And not just on the Strip! I live across from one of the best tamale places in the valley, and only minutes away from one of greatest breakfast spots (I’m sorry, but any place I can get s’mores pancakes and have Spam as a choice of meat is great). Between my office and work is countless amazing Mexican places, and the 4 mile foodie wonderland that is Las Vegas’s Chinatown. Not feeling like cooking tonight, I decided to head there after work, and give Curry Zen and Sweets Raku a try.
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The Drops of God and the Stigma of “Graphic Novels”

Upon hearing about The Drops of God, a Japanese manga about the interesting world of wine, I became interested and infatuated with it. This was a manga that swayed wine prices throughout Asia, and was well received in France and beyond. Surely, this series, now being available legally in English, would flourish in America among adults who enjoy wine and good stories right? Wrong.
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Deja Entendu? Au Contraire.

I realized that Brand New’s sophomore album, Deja Entendu, is well over a decade old now. I remember when it came out; I was in middle school, angsty, and thought I related to it then. Oddly enough, I still relate to it. It’s an interesting album, with really no bad song. Every lyric, smart; every beat meaningful. Less than an hour long, I still find myself listening to it, finding new meaning, a new breakthrough on how those songs are poignantly applicable to my life. It’s among my favorite albums of all times; pretty crazy considering I was but a fresh faced teenager the first time I listened to it.
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Video Games as a Coping Mechanism

Video games are a powerful thing. I don’t really care what is or isn’t a game, nor if a game should make you feel. Let’s face it, is Call of Duty really that much more of a game than Tetris or Papers, Please? Does the budget or the story or the platform truly make that big of a difference if you end up enjoying it at the end of the day? But I digress. No, today I want to tell you about what some games mean to me, and what some games can mean to others, especially during times of loss.

Today I want to talk about games and that inescapable monster, death.
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