Author: Thamara

Categories
Musings

Word Vomit

The only reason I’m writing this is… well… there is no reason at all, really. Perhaps it is that I feel a little disgruntled for not productively utilising my time in quarantine. Perhaps I’m just bored out of my mind at this very moment, with no motivation pick up anything else–not even a leisurely task; a book, a game, or a movie.

That is not to say that I feel this way all the time. On the contrary. Looking back at conversations I’ve had with friends it seems like I have been dealing with the situation rather well. Most had not taken the confinement well. Not me, my life pre-COVID was not very different from what I do now. I don’t crave social interactions at all. You could say I’m in my element when I’m alone and unbothered.

I’m not going anywhere with this. A word vomit is supposed to be about anything, or nothing at all. Should I do this regularly? Will I have the capacity for it? Will I have anything to write about? I seem to be running out of things to talk about very quickly when I’m out and about (that’s why I keep my mouth shut) and could very well be the case for writing. I certainly can’t approach this from a documenting/diary angle–there’s not much variety in what I do every day.

Is this going to be a thousand words? I thought I’d do that in the beginning. I’ve seen people do 1,000-word vomits consistently, as a habit, as a tool to help them keep writing. Perhaps that’s a bit too much. 500? Should I be counting at all? Should I think about what I’m going to write on first? Is any premeditation necessary? Oh, maybe I should write movie reviews? Am I capable of writing movie reviews? What about games? Books, perhaps? Would the reviews sound dumb? Should I be concerned about sounding dumb? Should I keep a thesaurus tab open? Is expansive vocabulary that important? Hasn’t the piece served its purpose if the reader understands what I’m trying to say? be Should I check for typos afterwards? Will this be interesting to read? Should it be? Should I publish these at all? Can’t I keep writing things on my journal as I always have.

WordPress tells me I’m nowhere near 1,000 words. I haven’t even reached 400 at this point. But this is it for today, I feel. I will try again… next week? Tomorrow is too soon. Maybe two days from now.

Categories
Musings

God of War

After 48 hours of gameplay, I have fully completed–or, as the kids say, Platted–Sony’s critically acclaimed God of War.

I enjoyed the game thoroughly. It is quite possibly one of the best I’ve ever played. Cory Barlog and crew deserve all the praise they’re getting. I had a few minor gripes with how the story ended, but having observed the story more closely post-game (by way of meticulous consumption of YouTube videos) I have changed my mind, and since decided that it couldn’t have been better.

On the whole, the story is masterfully embedded in the vast world of Norse mythology, letting us explore not just Midgard, but Alfheim, Nifleheim, Muspelheim and Helheim, too, through a travel room (think: a TARDIS for the Yggdrasil) built by the god Tyr.

Here are four gorgeous screenshots from the game.

  • At the edge of the Wildwoods
  • Exploring Alfheim
  • The First Mountain
  • The Last Mountain

If you have a PS4, you need to play this game. It’s an experience like no other.

Categories
Musings

Isolation

I have to say, I cannot relate to those seemingly losing their minds over being confined to their homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, my lifestyle has been the exact same – I barely left home on outings and excursions, and I barely left my room while at home.

This is what I like. I can spend years like this, if need be. What’s a few months? Peanuts.

Categories
Gear

6XX

I’ve put about 100 hours of listening time into them and I can say that most mixes on iTunes sound pretty warm, louder even, while on Tidal they’re very neutral yet somehow more… intimate. May not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve grown to like it.

I’m not “adventurous” when it comes to music, I only listen to a very limited number of genres, so I’m not sure how they fare across a wider variety of music. But if you generally enjoy songs with a wide soundstage, you can’t go wrong with these.

I’m also yet to experiment with different DACs and amps. (Not quite ready to spend a lot of money on this yet.) That should be interesting to see. Right now I’m using a Creative Soundblaster G6, and it drives the headphones quite well.

Categories
Journal Snippets

Witcher

After watching the Netflix adaption of The Witcher, I wanted to read the books and play the games. I had already played about 15 hours in the 3rd game, but I was not fully invested in the mythos there. So I started with the first book, and the first game.

The first game came out in 2007. So it was pretty badly optimised for my new hardware. I endured through it, nevertheless. The story was pretty good, but a little dragged out. The game totalled around 45 hours, if I’m not mistaken.

The first two books (The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny) were relatively fast reads. They’re collections of short stories. The third book, Blood of Elves, which is the first novel, is what I’m reading now.

It’s only after starting to read the books I realised that the events in the games take place after the events in the book series. But that didn’t affect my experience adversely at all.

I’m now playing the second game (Assassins of Kings.) I had some trouble optimising the game for my computer, but things are working fine now. I’ve played about 4 hours, and hoping to play more in the next weeks.