Day 272: Whiplash the Movie: Opening a can of Whiplash

 

Watch the movie first before reading this, Spoiler Alert.

The first scene that shows us what kind of person the conductor is is when he kicks out one of players. From there we can see this guy is an extreme perfectionist.

When Andrew Neimann sits on the drums for a first practice session with the band, it becomes apparent that the conductor is not your everyday average conductor. Terrence Fletcher (the conductor) first utters the words “That’s not quite my tempo” (still give me chills) and we know that shit is about to hit the fan – and man, did the shit hit the fan.

If you already watched this movie you will agree with me that saying the Conductor is a Motivational Speaker is a gross understatement. The guy is borderline Psychotic, but in the end it did give results.

What I did notice about the drummer is that he has a passion for jazz drumming. You can see his room full of posters of famous drummers and his goal in life is to become “one of the greats”. And as the movie goes on you can see that he will do anything to get there. But there is line here, When does passion become obsession? The Kid was actually obsessed to become the greatest and pushed himself (with help from the psychotic conductor) trying to get there.

Also looking at all the players in the band – nobody there actually enjoyed themselves. They will fearful and worried and anxious – obviously stressed, because if they make one mistake they are out of the band. The reason why they are there is because playing in that band ( one of the top notch bands) they can get recognized and go places in life.

For me what does it matter if judges and people say you are good. What is the point of being able to play the drums faster than anybody else? Sure, if it is a point of doing it for yourself and not for the approval of others it’s fine. But pushing yourself to the limits just for the approval is really limiting to what Music actually is.

Unfortunately in this world competition comes in the way of that. Often times people have a talent, and the only to make money off that talent is to push yourself to the limits to become better than others so that you can be recognized and make a living off music. And that can take the passion right out of Music. In those cases there is not time passion, but in all the others remember: Music should be an expression of yourself. You do it, because you enjoy doing it.

The Integrity of Gaming - Best Game Review

I was born in the computer age – before windows was here to make things simpler. Our first computer was running DOS. I was very young when I first played computer games and these games were running on DOS so it was very simplistic fun games of which the games I cannot remember. I played more “television games” with a console box and the time spent there was not allot. See, I was still in an age where we actually “went outside to go and play”. Our play time was almost always outside – whereas now kids spend most of their time inside with TV and Computer games. 

Unfortunately nowadays it is simply not safe anymore for a bunch of kids to play on the streets – and with technology and smartphones physical social interaction is becoming a thing of the past.

Back to my topic – the Integrity of Gaming. I was not a heavy gamer in terms of computers and consoles. In school I basically played 2 games all the time which was Heroes of Might and Magic 4 and Red Alert 2. The only reason why I only played these games was because it was the only games on my computer and I liked playing them. I did not have the need to find other games to play – that did not even occur to me and the fact that there might even be a Heroes of Might and Magic 5 did not occur to me at all. I was not a heavy or even a casual gamer. What I liked about these games was that I create a Massive map and it would take weeks to finish. I was introduced to the gaming scene only after I finished school and a new world of fun and games awaited me. 

Now seriously, Back to my topic: The Integrity of gaming.  The Best game I have ever played in my life is…The one and only…totally amazing… The Mass Effect Series. Bioware really did a great job with this game. It is a total of 3 games. Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2 and Mass effect 3.  All of them are great games and if you do want to try it out you have to start with Mass effect 1. This game is Good for many reasons and one of them are that your choices has an effect throughout the series. The choices you make in number 1 will affect the game in number 3. And seemingly small choices and decisions you make can have great consequences throughout your adventure. 

 Another reason the game is the best is the amount of work that went into it. You can really see it – the dialogue and voice actors is excellent. The Storyline and the way the game progress and tells the story is done very well. I played the Mass Effect series  a few times over, because it is that good and there aren’t many other games that are this good.  Another good game they made was Dragon age, not as good as Mass Effect, but good. They unfortunately messed up with Dragon 2 which is not as good as Dragon age 1.

I played other games that were good as well like The Witcher 2, Command and Conquer 3, Anno 1404, Anno 2070, Skyrim, Warcraft 3, Rage, The settlers, Dawn of War(not number2), Assassins creed 1,2 and 3, Portal 1 and 2. Just to name a few. They are all great games to play, But the way Mass effect plays and how it was made is excellent. They did the best they could and then did even better.  

The game has integrity – some games that come out now are not very well done. You play it and tell yourself that they could have done such a better job with it. You have those game developers that make one good game – and then the second game of that series is crap. Almost like they are cashing in on the name of the first game.  Not Cool. Some strive to do even better and get it right.

I have read that Bioware is busy developing a new Mass Effect series and I will patiently await its arrival. 

For those who would like to know – The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age 3 are also in development and is estimated to be out early 2014. I will be playing those game So that is it – A very well done game deserves to be written about.

s if my computer can handle it.

Day 125 - Giving up On Myself? Why do that?

 

I listened to This interview: Giving Up on Myself - Life Review. What i found fascinating is how it explains Why we give up on ourselves.

Why is it that when we have are looking forward to do something like for example learn to play an instrument, build something yourself or doing something you always wanted to do and then end up not doing it and give up on doing it? Why do get that deep sinking feeling that makes us want to give up - what is that voice in our heads that say ''I cannot do it''. And within this we never give it our best shot - never giving it our all. I look back at my life and wonder how different my life would have been if I made the decision to give it my all within what I was doing and how i could have developed myself and various skills. IF i had given it my all during school I know i would have done better. If i had given it my all when i did classical piano I would now have been a professional pianist. the same with other instruments.

Its not just that - In school i was always shy and hiding always afraid. If I had stopped that and given myself the opportunity to break and walk through my fears and given it my all i would have enjoyed it better.

After listening to this interview I gave me clarity. I could see that i wasted my life half-assing everything. And it gave me insight, assistance and support to move myself to become effective.

So listen and enjoy : Download