The Simple Things: Our Heath Packs

    
     Hello all, I decided to make this week's post early partly because this will probably be the only free time I'll have until Saturday and because I thought of something earlier. I was eating a slice of ice cream cake and I thought of something: most of the world has never tasted chocolate. Think about that: chocolate a food once used as currency, a food that has spawned a new kind of addiction, a food that we pass everyday in the grocery store, and most of the world has never tasted it. And that got me thinking some more and it just made me really be thankful for things we have deemed "the simple things" because in all honesty guys: most of these things are luxuries. We think that getting out of bed and actually feeling refreshed is a simple thing that we enjoy but there are people all over the world, even here in America that consider OWNING a bed a great luxury. And I'm not making this to speak out against privilege but I do want to say something: there are five types of people in this world:

1. Those without luxuries
2. Those who have luxuries and don't appreciate them
3. Those who live for luxuries
4. Those who believe luxuries are bad, they know because they see the damage it causes every time they turn on their HD surround sound movie theater flat-screen TV
5. Those who try to appreciate everything about their lives even though it's far from perfect and try to share their joy with other people

Guys I just got to ask: why aren't there more of the fifth type? I have a friend at my church named Nick who has been a huge inspiration to me. This man has divorced parents, he is pretty much raising his niece by himself, he is constantly picked on at school because he has morals, he has gotten rejected tons of times when he simply asks someone if they would like to talk about the Gospel, this man has survived a house being burnt to the ground, and he gets angry sometimes and it's kind of scary when that happens. But he never gives up, to the point where one of his friends has asked him: "why have you not given up yet?" Nick's answer to this still amazes me: "because I have God helping me the whole way." Nick is also an amazing person in general, he laughs a lot, he tells amazing stories and funny jokes, he's in honors classes in school, he's not afraid of expressing his opinion to the point where he has come at odds with other people in our own youth group, and though I've only met his niece a few times I can say with confidence that Nick will make the best husband and father someday. I think of all this and how he can laugh through it all and I look at my struggles: not getting person records in track and not getting good grades, and I realize that I can laugh and enjoy the little things to, so I'll try to be more of a number five guy like Nick is. 

How Boss Battles Can Help You In Life

     Here we go. You've spend countless hours battling the enemies outside, getting stronger. The doors are opening. Here goes nothing, "Leroy Jenkins!!"

The boss battle is one of my favorite parts of video games, from the Gym Leaders in Pokemon to the Dragons in Skyrim, to pretty much everything in Dark Souls 2. The challenge, the frustration, enjoying the silliness of some bosses and remembering the scariness of other bosses late at night. But did you know that bosses can help you in life? Its true so lets take a look with Life, The Video Game:

     The boss battle has several main components that are in all video games, even Life these are:

• There is a time and place associated with it. Whether it is after start date or before an end date, whether it is the gym or your backyard the boss battle will start somewhere and it will end somewhere.
• The boss is challenging. Yes, even that bug queen in the first dungeon is challenging. This is something that we don't like to do: challenge ourselves. We like to coast, whether it be in our jobs, our schoolwork, our family life, etc. So what the boss does is force you to challenge yourself. For example I obviously don't challenge myself to write here consistently so that will be my goal: by May 18 I will have written and published 1 post a week. (Hold me to that guys.)
• There is a reward. That's right: you get stuff for defeating that boss. When you defeat a boss in a video game you get something, whether it be a new weapon, new item slots open in your inventory, cool armor. So when you plan your boss have a reward be part of the planing process. Not something anti the boss, like saying: if I go to the gym everyday this month I'll eat a whole pizza on the last day. That's silly and undermines both your accomplishment and your goal, but chose something that you will like. For example: if your goal is to run everyday for a month maybe your reward is that new pair of running shoes you saw in the store. So for my reward: if I write and publish a post every week until May 18 I'll get Y the Last Man Vol 1. 

     Anyway I hope this helps you guys out in some way or another. See you all next week in the next post.

Photos from Newgrounds.com artist ravenhart. and bitlanders.com 

Two sides of the same story; The Hunt for Truth trailers

    

      Hello all, with this weeks Nintendo Direct giving us only a little bit of info on a lot of topics I decided that this week I'll go over something different: the #huntfortruth Halo 5 trailers. (Spartan Locke) (Master Chief)  These trailers are interesting in that they are each a twisted mirror image of the other: they both involve one of the aforementioned Spartans talking to the other Spartan, the later of whom is sprawled on the ground below a Master Chief statue.

      What really got my character instincts going though is how different the two are, and that is what I want to cover in this article: how Master Chief and Spartan Locke are different. 

   

     First off is the thing that was most obvious to me: they talk differently, I don't mean that one has an accent that the other doesn't, nothing like that. I'm talking about the way that they talk. If you notice during the entire Master Chief ad John is unemotional and steely calm, challenging Locke verbally with questions: "is this what you wanted," and using words like "compromised," this calm is kept until, interestingly MC addresses the fallen Spartan by putting extra emphasis on only one phrase in the commercial: "Spartan Locke." This is very intriguing when you think how often Master Chief gets mad: that is, never. Also Master Chief states that Locke is being killed because his mission is done, while Chief's is just getting started.

   
     On the other hand Locke is emotional from the start: coming out of the house quiet and than intimately going into a bitterly sarcastic bit: "hail the conquering hero." The whole spheel is being said almost as if in front of a crowd. Another thing is Locke never addresses Master Chief by his name, rank, nickname or anything, he addresses him twice in the add: once as "that," and once as "you." This could mean one of two things: either Locke is taunting Chief by subliminally saying "you don't deserve a name," or he is putting him on a level less then human to make it easier for him to kill Master Chief to avoid guilt latter on. (This second theory is a practice commonly used by real word soldiers when the soldiers give the enemy names like "Camel Humpers," "Macs," or "Reds.") Also Locke states that Chief must be killed to save "us."

   

      The other thing is more of just something to reinforce said earlier stuff: their body language. Granted since both where in full MJOLNIR armor little can be said of their body language but what is here speaks volumes. For example Master Chief walks very slowly, keeps both hands on the rifle and barely looks at the statue, while Locke starts in a similar fashion, even keeping the gun at the ready for a few seconds, but then starts motioning with his hand like he his on stage and looks at the statue for almost a dramatic effect. Also when going for their hand guns Chief and Locke do it very differently, Master Chief puts his rifle in place on his armor and gets the pistol while Locke drops his rifle into a puddle and gets the pistol. All of this furthers what I've been saying: for Chief Locke is just part of a mission to be carried out, for Locke this is personal. 

   

     This all has even more questions riddled in it to begin with: why are two Spartans fighting in the first place? What happened to Locke in the Chief ad and vise versa? Why is the link for the Locke ad in the Chief video called "The Other Side of Truth" while the link for the Chief ad in the Locke video is called "Truth is Never What it Seems?" Oh well. I guess we'll have the answers when Halo 5 comes out.