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Ice with Everything: In Climbing Mountains or Sailing the Seas One Often Has to Settle for Less Than One Hoped
H.W. Tilman, Trevor Robertson and Alex Ramsay
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'For most men, as Epicurus has remarked, rest is stagnation and activity madness. Mad or not, the...
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BookblogbyCari (345 KP) rated If I Die Before I Wake in Books
Jul 31, 2018
This book is part whodunit and part thriller– but not in equal measures.
The central character, Alex, wakes up to find he has been in coma for over a year – but everyone still thinks he is in the coma – he cannot move a finger. He gathers from his visitors that he had an accident while rock climbing but he has no recollection of what happened. Half way through the book Alex finds out that he was a victim of attempted murder, and tries his utmost to work out who would want to do it and how it could have happened. Simultaneously he tries desperately to show everyone that he’s awake.
I found the author’s storytelling a little jumpy. The book is written as a stream of consciousness from the protagonist. A protagonist who is often sleepy at vital times, often delirious, and although he is often looking back at his personal life, he also manages to block out important memories.
It was a long wait before Alex found out about the attempted murder, but I knew it was coming from the book description I had read. And the author did have plenty to write about up to that point, and this was deliberately void of focus. One minute Alex is describing how he met his girlfriend, and soon after it swings to overhearing discussions about stopping his food. The author paints a good picture of Alex and his life before the accident.
Telling a story where the main character can’t so much as chew his own food must be no mean feat, but the author pulls it off expertly. There are several characters and sub plots, with past mistakes, an aggravated police officer, moody relatives, a hidden crush, a strange threatening letter, a possible pregnancy, and a proposal that never went ahead. Koch draws you in to Alex’s world, with characters you love to hate and hidden agendas to question.
Of course we do find out whodunit (no spoilers!) but this is done with more of the story to come.
That said I would have preferred more overheard dialogue at this part, though I did find the ending particularly fitting for the character.
You can check out more of my book reviews on Wordpress or Facebook:
https://bookblogbycari.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bookblogbycari/
The central character, Alex, wakes up to find he has been in coma for over a year – but everyone still thinks he is in the coma – he cannot move a finger. He gathers from his visitors that he had an accident while rock climbing but he has no recollection of what happened. Half way through the book Alex finds out that he was a victim of attempted murder, and tries his utmost to work out who would want to do it and how it could have happened. Simultaneously he tries desperately to show everyone that he’s awake.
I found the author’s storytelling a little jumpy. The book is written as a stream of consciousness from the protagonist. A protagonist who is often sleepy at vital times, often delirious, and although he is often looking back at his personal life, he also manages to block out important memories.
It was a long wait before Alex found out about the attempted murder, but I knew it was coming from the book description I had read. And the author did have plenty to write about up to that point, and this was deliberately void of focus. One minute Alex is describing how he met his girlfriend, and soon after it swings to overhearing discussions about stopping his food. The author paints a good picture of Alex and his life before the accident.
Telling a story where the main character can’t so much as chew his own food must be no mean feat, but the author pulls it off expertly. There are several characters and sub plots, with past mistakes, an aggravated police officer, moody relatives, a hidden crush, a strange threatening letter, a possible pregnancy, and a proposal that never went ahead. Koch draws you in to Alex’s world, with characters you love to hate and hidden agendas to question.
Of course we do find out whodunit (no spoilers!) but this is done with more of the story to come.
That said I would have preferred more overheard dialogue at this part, though I did find the ending particularly fitting for the character.
You can check out more of my book reviews on Wordpress or Facebook:
https://bookblogbycari.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bookblogbycari/
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Captain Fantastic (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Dysfunctionally functional.
The second of my catch-up films for next Sunday’s Oscars, this time featuring Viggo Mortensen who is up for a Best Actor Oscar.
“Captain Fantastic” starts with a dramatic hunting expedition introducing us to the unusual Cash family. Dad Ben (Viggo Mortensen) is bringing up his six kids – Bodevan, Kielyr, Vespyr, Rellian, Zaja and Nai – in the wilds of Washington state. Ben takes home-schooling to a completely new level, with intense study and examinations in quantum physics, philosophy and politics matched with a militaristic approach to weapons-training and physical fitness. Ben also teaches extreme self-sufficiency, most evident during a dramatic rock-climbing sequence.
Where is their mum in all of this? That would be a spoiler (so don’t watch the trailer either) but is central to the plot as the family board their old camper van – “Steve” – on a road trip back to the ‘real world’ and the children’s grandparents – the crusty and assertive Jack (a marvellous Frank Langella) and Abigail (Ann Dowd). What follows is filled with black humour, tragedy, not just one but two amazing funeral services and one of the most extraordinarily black and comic laying-to-rests ever seen on the big screen.
Viggo Mortensen is… well… fantastic in his portrayal, getting to run the full gamut of joy, grief, self-doubt, guilt and despair during the movie’s run-time. He’s clearly not going to win the Oscar on Sunday – surely Casey Affleck must be a slam-dunk for that – but this is a well-judged nomination by the Academy.
While the focus is on Mortensen, this shouldn’t overshadow the performances of some of the rest of the young cast, and I would specifically call out those of George MacKay and young Shree Crooks as the youngest of the kids. MacKay has been building up an impressive run of UK-based films with “Sunshine on Leith” and “Pride” but with this (and his key role in the recent TV mini-series “11.22.63”) he should see a break-through to more mainstream feature roles. In “Captain Fantastic” his socially-inept proposal to the delectable Claire (Erin Moriaty) is one of the high-points of the film. He is a name to watch, for sure.
And young Ms Crooks should be given a special honorary Oscar for the ability to learn such dense portions of script and deliver them so faultlessly!
The whole cast in fact was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture – one of my favourite award categories, but beaten by “Hidden Figures”. And it is that sort of film: a really great ensemble effort.
The film is written and directed by Matt Ross, only his second feature since 2012’s “28 Hotel Rooms” (which I was not aware of, but would now like to seek out). I thought it was terrific; deeply comedic; riveting from beginning to end; a roller-coaster of emotion and ultimately a feelgood classic on the value of family that I will remember fondly for a long time. Once again, the second film this week, that would have made me reconsider my “top films of 2016” list. I strongly recommend that you seek this out on download or DVD and give it a try.
“Captain Fantastic” starts with a dramatic hunting expedition introducing us to the unusual Cash family. Dad Ben (Viggo Mortensen) is bringing up his six kids – Bodevan, Kielyr, Vespyr, Rellian, Zaja and Nai – in the wilds of Washington state. Ben takes home-schooling to a completely new level, with intense study and examinations in quantum physics, philosophy and politics matched with a militaristic approach to weapons-training and physical fitness. Ben also teaches extreme self-sufficiency, most evident during a dramatic rock-climbing sequence.
Where is their mum in all of this? That would be a spoiler (so don’t watch the trailer either) but is central to the plot as the family board their old camper van – “Steve” – on a road trip back to the ‘real world’ and the children’s grandparents – the crusty and assertive Jack (a marvellous Frank Langella) and Abigail (Ann Dowd). What follows is filled with black humour, tragedy, not just one but two amazing funeral services and one of the most extraordinarily black and comic laying-to-rests ever seen on the big screen.
Viggo Mortensen is… well… fantastic in his portrayal, getting to run the full gamut of joy, grief, self-doubt, guilt and despair during the movie’s run-time. He’s clearly not going to win the Oscar on Sunday – surely Casey Affleck must be a slam-dunk for that – but this is a well-judged nomination by the Academy.
While the focus is on Mortensen, this shouldn’t overshadow the performances of some of the rest of the young cast, and I would specifically call out those of George MacKay and young Shree Crooks as the youngest of the kids. MacKay has been building up an impressive run of UK-based films with “Sunshine on Leith” and “Pride” but with this (and his key role in the recent TV mini-series “11.22.63”) he should see a break-through to more mainstream feature roles. In “Captain Fantastic” his socially-inept proposal to the delectable Claire (Erin Moriaty) is one of the high-points of the film. He is a name to watch, for sure.
And young Ms Crooks should be given a special honorary Oscar for the ability to learn such dense portions of script and deliver them so faultlessly!
The whole cast in fact was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture – one of my favourite award categories, but beaten by “Hidden Figures”. And it is that sort of film: a really great ensemble effort.
The film is written and directed by Matt Ross, only his second feature since 2012’s “28 Hotel Rooms” (which I was not aware of, but would now like to seek out). I thought it was terrific; deeply comedic; riveting from beginning to end; a roller-coaster of emotion and ultimately a feelgood classic on the value of family that I will remember fondly for a long time. Once again, the second film this week, that would have made me reconsider my “top films of 2016” list. I strongly recommend that you seek this out on download or DVD and give it a try.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Genshin Impact in Video Games
Apr 6, 2021
Free to play (2 more)
Gorgeous world full of beauty
Good story and fun to play
"Gacha" game, to unlock new characters and weapons the game utilizes in game currency that you can buy with real world money (1 more)
Multi-player/Co-op mode needs work
Another Example of Free to Play Done Right, Loads of Fun!
https://youtu.be/BFdBTc-vscg
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
