Sparkles #4

It seems that to protect my sister from stupid jerks somehow all I need to do is to become the coolest brother ever.

Of hurry

I'm such a nerd I've played Shadow of the Colossus to celebrate my undergraduate degree.
Ok, it was more like "it's finally over and  now I can do something I want to". But anyway, it's definitely one of the greatest games I've ever played. And then, as usual when I'm marvelled, I start looking for more material. No, I don't have ICO here. I've stumbled upon this american podcast where they play through certain ammount of the game each week and then discuss about it. It's nice to see the progression of their impressions throughout the game. But I was a little puzzled at how two out of the four members didn't really enjoy the game. It's not that I'm huge fanboy who can't take critics, cause my favorite member (Gerritt, I think) turned out to be one who didn't even finish the game, but, oh man, half of them were not having a good time when playing it.

But then that guy said he probably didn't enjoy the game because they had to get to a certain point of the game to talk about it on the podcast, so that made the experience a little stressful. If he had more time and no pressure to get to the colossi and slay them as soon as he could, he could probably have enjoyed it more. He could have tasted it better. And I think that's the point, Shadow of the Colossus has to be tasted slowly.

It's something I've heard in another podcast, where they have a term for this game-tasting experience. It's a portuguese word, hard to be translated. Anyway, they mean getting immersed in that world, playing as if you're the character. The true role-playing experience. The walking-slowly-button is vital for this kind of experience, they say. I couldn't agree more.
Of course, maybe Wander would actually want to rush to every colossus and slay them as soon as he could, he'd have a reason to do so, I don't think he was crossing that barren world for sight-seeing. In fact, ignoring every passing ruin and bridge just in order to get where I needed gave me a feeling of urgency. But sometimes, when I decided to walk slower through the plains, the whole lack of music and just the sounds of Agro's galloping suddenly filled me with melancholy and a feeling of anguish and loneliness, and I started instrospecting Wander's mind. What a burden. And how selfish this all is, killing these poor giant bastards who sometimes are so indifferent to me. Oh man, there's so much to be said about the experience.

Anyway, that's one nice realization: hurry handicaps tasting. I think I can use that to improve my texts. Going along with the flow, explore it all slowly, no hurry to get it all done. Relaaax, dude.

Of ringing frequencies

I like it when movies have phrases that stick to your head, not because they are deep or whatever, but because they sound catchy as hell. My favorite saying from the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy is when Pippin says "Sure I know a Baggins! He's over there. Frodo Baggins!". There's this amusing accent and the high-pitched delivery of the "sure" that got me and kept making me repeat the sentence throughout the day.

I remember I was petting the dogs a while ago when the sentence came back to my mind, and there I was imitating Pippin's high-pitched "suuure", when one of the dogs went crazy. I stopped for a moment and then I repeated it. He was now apeshit insane. And that's why this dog recently got called Sure, said with a high note.
I like it, because when you call one of them by their name they all come along. But when I call Sure, sure only Sure comes to me.

And then one of these days I was sitting near the door tasting the sun when I called Sure. He's better now, he only waves his tail, instead of feeling like being everywhere at once. It got me thinking, weird how you deliver this certain frequency and that makes Sure so happy.

Of unexpectedly long titles out of a sudden

As much as I like to listen to music 24/7, there's nothing like some profound silence once in a while.