Emergen-C | Mornings
| Movies | Games
|The Non-Caffeinated
Morning|
It's the third day
of daily blogging, and as a result we're working on a series of
threes, or more. As such, I will detail the three primary drinks that
get me up in the morning, in particular, in this case, a more unique
morning drink, Emergen-C.
This one doesn't
provide me that morning dose of caffeine that I so often need to
survive, but I find that either through placebo or some unknown
property of Vitamin C overdose I am well sustained by the fizzy
vitamin C substitute. I don't personally enjoy Emergen-C as a product
of filtered water, but mixing the powder with Sprite, 7-Up or any
other lemon-lime soda produces a very pleasant drink.
Ironically enough,
Emergen-C can not be the only startup juice for the day, I've felt
decidedly unproductive (oh boy) and so I also had a cup of Maxwell
House Original in my tall Monterey souvenir cup.
To pair oh so well
with this distressing lack of productivity, I burned my wife's
waffles this morning, so I had my “preferred level of preparedness”
waffles and she had perfectly toasted golden waffles for breakfast.
I'm good at what I do when I need to be.
It's a small bit
about the day's startup, but I suspect that most of these little
drink tidbits, my “morning cups” will be small.
|The Three “P”s|
Productivity,
Preparation and Pastimes, yes, I made up a triple threat for my
mornings just so I could write about them. Sue me. (Worth noting, I
have a thing for alliteration, particularly with “P”s).
These are the three
things that my “morning cups” serve to help me with. Starting
from left to right I suppose (though these are organized in no
special way), productivity is the idea that in the mornings I need to
get things done. I wake up early to do yard work and research
information about my next online marketing scheme (speaking of, have
you seen my Youtube channel?). This productivity needs to carry on
into actual job work, at least until the afternoon, when everything
kind of relaxes a bit.
Second on that list,
Preparation, which is partially covered in productivity. I need to
wake up and have my coffee as the first form of preparation. From
there, I'll need to meditate, at least for a few minutes, on the
tasks ahead of me. I find that showers are particularly useful in
this aspect, as well as allowing me to physically prepare my body for
the day ahead (lol or 101, whichever you prefer). I can follow this
up with brainstorming some blog ideas to punch together and a handful
of story ideas that may well never come to fruition, though one can
always hope.
Finally, my
pastimes, which partially fall under preparation for my blogging and
writing, and partially are involved with keeping my ears and eyes
busy while my body works through the morning motions. Let's listen to
an audiobook while we work on the yard, this is only the second time
I've listened to the entire Dune series after all. It's good to wake
up so early, because late morning and and the afternoons are
typically filled with either work, or other people's pastimes that I
happen to be involved in.
|The Magic of
Cinematic Trilogies|
This is a fairly
simple morning, as I would hope my third day of daily blogging would
be. After all, we've not run out of topics yet! Today I've just got a
list of some of the trilogies that made up my childhood. Some bad,
some great, it's a mixed bag, kind of like a lot of trilogies in
general.
There's one
particularly beloved trilogy that stands out in my mind, one that
will definitely attract some disdain, and that is the Toby McGuire
Spider-Man movie trilogy. This shouldn't really come as a surprise,
Spider-Man is probably my favorite comic book hero—especially if
one looks at my youth—and Toby was the first actor to portray him
on the big screen. A lot of people give the Spider-Man trilogy,
particularly the third installment, a lot of flack, and I can see the
reasoning behind most of this. However, this doesn't change the
lasting impact the movies have had on my cinematic history.
Contrarily, many many people have told me that Tom Holland is the
best incarnation of big screen Spider-Man, and while I don't doubt
Tom Holland's ability to portray a role assigned to him, I severely
doubt the ability of Disney/Marvel to write a big screen Spider-Man
that I can appreciate. While yes I understand that Spidey is supposed
to have a doctorate in witty battle banter with an emphasis on
humorous comebacks, the fact is that's not the whole of his
character. The arachnid avenger's sense of humor should be strongly
tempered by a sense of consequence. Also, Peter Parker is neither a
dumpster diver, nor so terrible a nerd that he doesn't know what the
machines in Star Wars are called, and he certainly should not spend
lengths of combat “fanboying” over the mechanical limbs of his
adversaries. Otherwise, the Doc Ock/Spider-Man relationship would
have been very different.
Carrying on, there's
another trilogy that will probably meet with significantly less
controversy, and that's the peak product of The Wachowskies, The
Matrix Trilogy. Now, in my experience with the internet and many
groups of social nerds, I understand that technically the trilogy is
often seen as a bad word when concerning The Matrix, many people
believe The Matrix should have been the only movie in that series. I
would beg to differ, I hate to see a good thing die, if one can
produce a trilogy about a compelling hero, then one should
produce a trilogy. The Matrix is probably one of my three major roots
to the science fiction genre, the other two being Star Wars and the
Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card (yes, I hear the moans of the true
nerds, where is Foundation, where is Dune, somewhere in my
post-attachment history, my attachment begins with cinema and high
school book sales). Whilst 12 year old me no doubt missed much of the
underlying plot of The Matrix when I first viewed it, the following
years of re-exposure whilst living with my father helped to develop
and strengthen an understanding of the movies that will stick with me
until the day I die. Follow that up with the hundred of online
interpretations of various assets and theories, like Smith was
actually “The One” and you have a conglomeration of nonsense that
no one would bother with even if they wanted.
Finally
there is the Star Wars trilogy, and ironically, despite my very
classic opinion in the modern day that the original three movies (now
deemed IV, V and VI) are the better and more important films, when I
talk about the influential ones on my childhood, there can be no
doubt that the three I'm referring to are The Phantom Menace, The
Clone Wars and The Revenge of the Sith. These three movies, prequels
to the original Star Wars films, have been deemed nonsense offshoots
of George Lucas' desire to make money by many fans, but the fact is
that these maddening movies drew in a whole new era of Star Wars
fans, and helped to establish many concepts that helped the expanded
universe in its development. Without the enhanced graphics and at
least semi-relatable characters of the prequel trilogy, I doubt if I
ever would have developed the respect that I have fort he puppets,
plastic on strings, and sheer corniness that is the original trilogy.
Yes, yes, midi-chlorians are bad, because they undermine the
simplicity of the original concepts behind the Force. Yes, Jar-Jar
Binks is an infinitely undesirable character who steals a bit of joy
from die hard fans every-time they hear “Mesa name Jar-Jar Binks.”
Finally, yes, the lack of clarity about some underlying plots like
“Plagueis created Anakin through midi-chlorian manipulation,” is
infuriating when you really just want these theories to be true. But,
Star Wars is still a masterpiece, with or without hyperspace chase
sequences that make no sense because they've never been a problem
before and ugly annoying
alien critters that are introduced purely to appeal to a young
audience.
Alright,
I think those are the three trilogies whose elicited feelings within
me are most controversial...time to move on?
|The
Final Trilogies|
Anyone
who knows a bit about Final Fantasy trilogy knows that the name isn't
about these games being the “final installment” or “a final
event.” In fact, most Final Fantasies games end with a “And they
had more adventures” tag and all except the most recent, Final
Fantasy XV, have proven to in fact not be the final entry. The reason
Final Fantasy was called “Final” Fantasy is because it was the
last project Square Soft had on their plate to try to keep from going
under. Fortunately, the fantastical Final Fantasy appealed to both
Eastern and Western audience so well that not only did Square Soft
avoid going under, but they produced 14 sequel-like games, with
dozens more spin-off titles. There's something particularly notable
about the original Final Fantasy games, the first nine to be
specific, they are trilogies.
Final
Fantasy through Final Fantasy III are the foundation for everything
that would come after them, iconic themes like the four elemental
crystals and evil empires are establish in these first three games,
the job system that would make recurring appearances throughout the
series was first introduced in Final Fantasy III, and all three of
them were originally Nintendo exclusive titles released on the
Nintendo Entertainment System. These games were fun-filled grand
adventure games that saved a dying company and set the stage for a
dynasty of role-playing games that may well never end.
The
second “trilogy” of Final Fantasy games was, obviously, Final
Fantasy IV through Final Fantasy VI. This is actually the trilogy
American fans are most familiar with, because while we got Final
Fantasy, our next installments—maddeningly named Final Fantasy II
and Final Fantasy III—were in fact Final Fantasy IV and VI. Why?
Because by the time localization of the real Final Fantasy II was
underway, the Super Nintendo was hitting store shelves and we
couldn't draw attention away from that! In fairness, as far as I can
tell, Final Fantasy II would not have been a worthwhile port, but
Final Fantasy III never hitting shelves in the States is a bit
upsetting (well, it didn't hit the shelves for nearly four console
generations). This is also the first trilogy we sampled in full, as I
noted Final Fantasy III didn't see a stateside release until the
Nintendo DS, but Final Fantasy V found its way over in the Final
Fantasy Anthology dual CD set for the PlayStation. This second
trilogy was an affirmation of what Final Fantasy was, and drew out
much of what was loved about the first three games with more defined
characters, grander stories, and refined gameplay—at least, unlike
in Final Fantasy, the intelligence stat meant something in these
games.
The
third trilogy, and perhaps the final trilogy that actually fits this
pattern, is Final Fantasy VII through Final Fantasy IX, and these
games represent for many the epitome of the series. While there are
and will forever be debates about the merits of Final Fantasy IV and
VI's stories, and Final Fantasy VII will forever draw disdain from
“true fans” as the game that hooked the “plebs” the fact of
the matter is this generation of games introduced the first 3D models
and drew in the largest audience. This is also the generation that
saw Square Soft break free of their direct relationship with
Nintendo, turning toward the CD based storage of Sony's PlayStation.
I
say this is the final trilogy of this sort, because while Final
Fantasy X through Final Fantasy XII were all released on the
PlayStation 2, Final Fantasy XI does not exist in the same vein as
its brethren, functioning as a multiplayer successor and the first
Final Fantasy MMO. After XII, XIII and XV were released during
different console generations, while XIV was again an MMO.
Thus
ended the era of Final Fantasy trilogies.
|Th-that's
All Folks|
So
we are finished with the day's excitement, I think this may be the
longest of my initial trilogy of blog posts! How nice. I really
enjoyed writing up today's topics, regardless of how much extra time
it took me to get this posted. I'm not certain what we'll do
tomorrow, but I am certain that it'll be a treat.
C.W. Sherman
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