Hey! I listen to music!

So, I'm tackling something a bit different from my previous posting history would suggest today. I'm quite an audiophile (stated in the humblest way possible, of course) and listen to a wide array of music, so it's only natural that I write a thing or two about music from time to time. Perhaps I will do this on a regular (re:weekly) basis, perhaps not. However, let's get to it!

Breaking Benjamin is a bit of a guilty pleasure that I feel somewhat guilty calling a guilty pleasure. Meaning, people always use the phrase "guilty pleasure" as a way to distance themselves from something that they feel doesn't live up to their usual standards or modus operandi. Thus, it can be somewhat of a backhanded compliment to the thing being referenced. Let me get this out of the way; Breaking Benjamin is a fine band. I'm not here today to critique them as a band, but I'm sure they fall somewhere in the void between that hazy (and huge) blur that is metal/hard rock and pop rock. It doesn't always feel right to call them just rock, but they don't quite tick the right boxes to be considered metal. Perhaps you disagree? Great! (comment below and let me know!)

Moving on, I remember hearing when BB broke up back in 2010 and thinking to myself, "bummer."
That was it, no real emotion and quickly forgotten. Then, when I heard they were coming back in some form in 2014, I had a similar quick reaction and memory dump. Wait for it, I'm getting to a point, I promise. A year later I heard their first single "Failure" off of the new album, I enjoyed it and then forgot about it. Now that the new album is out, I decided to give it a full listen and after listening to it I had one thought; pajamas. Now, before you think I've jumped the shark, hear me out. Think about your wardrobe. Do you have any article of clothing that you find yourself wearing around your abode quite often, but you never really think much about? Sure, you're happy to be wearing it at the time, it's comfortable and all, but it's more out of a sense of convenience and familiarity than it possessing any special characteristics. This is what I came to grips with about this album. It's a good listen. It's 100% Breaking Benjamin. I feel like you could take every Breaking Benjamin song, toss them into a bingo cage, pull them out and randomly assign them to different albums and nothing would feel out of place. It's to the band's credit that this would be ok.

Alright, so, it's time for a greatest hits album

The songs on this album all have that mix of aggressiveness wallowing in a pool of melancholy that a veteran BB fan has come to expect. Or maybe it's the other way around. Anyways, the bottom line is, it's familiar. If you were expecting sweeping changes to the sound of the band after a few years off and a line up swap, prepare to be chagrined. It's still clunky (in a good way) guitar rock weaving a menacing tapestry around lead singer Benjamin Burnley's wails of sadness and sometimes hope. Perhaps the brilliance of Breaking Benjamin has always been that, while his voice isn't amazing, it marches in lockstep with the music. It's a perfect match and it elevates the band from run of the mill to pretty damn good. Notice, I didn't say "great." These are your comfy clothes. You don't wear them out except for a quick run to the corner store, lest you run into someone. (Unless you are like me, ahem) Such is this band and this album. Good. Worth a listen. Probably even a few. Will you binge on this for a day or two? Almost certainly. But when asked about your favorite releases, will you think to mention this album? Likely not, but not as a slight, more as a slipped your mind kind of event. Easily enjoyable, easily forgettable.

Bottom line; If you enjoyed any of the past BB releases, you'll enjoy this one. If accessible (shudder) rock is your thing, this is in your wheelhouse. If you are looking for something new, take a pass.

Strong tracks; Track 2: Failure, Track 3: Angels Fall, Track 7: Bury Me Alive, Track 10: Ashes of Eden

Rating: 7/10

Dwarf Fortress (Bring your climbing gear)

Carabiners?

Check.

Harnesses?

Check.

Rope?

Check.

Sylvester Stallone?

.....



Recently, as I wait for some other game releases (Path of Exile: Awakening and Crusader Kings 2: Horse Lords, I'm looking at you...), I've been spending time with Dwarf Fortress. It's a game that I love to hate, hate to love, love to love, or hate to hate. My displeasure and pleasure are both due to the fact that you can do so much in this game, but to do so often requires seemingly arcane rituals of interconnecting creations and button presses.

Dwarf Fortress, or DF as I will now refer to it, is the life's work of Tarn Adams. Perhaps I should call him Dr. Tarn Adams, because, you see, he holds a PhD from Stanford in Math. Tarn lived the American Dream of working hard during the day and nerding at night only to become super stressed out, give the system the middle finger, and make DF. Hooray disenfranchisement! Anyways, back to DF. The game is a simulation of what would happen if you dropped seven dwarfs at a site of your selecting in a generated game world with a limited amount of supplies and skills. Sounds charming, right?

But oh baby, it's deep.  Like an Isaac Hayes love song. Put the brakes on, I'm getting ahead of myself...ahem.

The graphics are a big stumbling block to many people. Does ASCII sound familiar? Yeah, everything in the game is rendered with a character, except for your dwarfs, who are rendered with "characters." Well, at least in some of the graphical packs you can install to make it a bit more new player friendly. I've played the game, off and on, a few times now and I STILL don't know what all of the little ASCII symbols mean. I find myself constantly referring to a symbol guide on the super comprehensive DF wiki page during the time when I'm picking a site to send off my merry band to.



Everything is keybinds and hotkeys...  Yes, everything. While you can use your mouse to do some things (possibly more with other addons), you'll be mainly ordering your dwarfs around by accessing different menus to give orders. Want to dig a 1x1 hole? Well, that'll be a (d) and then a (d) and then you arrow key your mouse cursor to where you want to dig and hit enter twice. Got it?

Stumbling blocks aside, let forth the flood gates of praise. This game is amazing. The game, through the in depth descriptions of each dwarf, really encourages your imagination to concoct a wild narrative.

The mayor wants two tables built? Why? Nobody knows.

A werebadger (yes, any animal can have lycanthropy) attacked your fortress and ripped off the arms of one of your dwarfs. Luckily, you saved him. Now you get to watch him wander about, useless, while your other denizens are forced to periodically feed him and give him drink.

In one of my previous playthroughs, everything was going swimmingly. I had a nice sized fortress that had bursting coffers with an ambition to dig deeper. So, I set an exploratory mining team in motion to tunnel down to see if we could find magma. (Magma=free heat/energy for smelting; Save the trees!) About ten levels down, I was alerted that we had found a "mysterious cavern." However, what I saw blew me away. There was a underground castle littered with corpses from the battle that was going on. Two different monster races (One was ant-men, the other escapes me, sorry) were battling it out for...who cares? My only worry though, past my initial stage of wonder was, "Have they seen me?"

I soon had my answer.

I should have walled up my tunnel downward at the moment I saw them, or not started the tunnel within my own fort walls, or trained my military better, or rigged up an elaborate series of rock fall and cage traps, or had a tame dragon with my exploratory mission.

Alas...

I didn't do any of those things. I like to imagine that somewhere in the multiverse of forgotten DF worlds, there is a world where a ferocious species of ant-men rose from the crumbling walls of a devastated fortress. They spread out like a carpet, and took over that world.

Or...maybe...they dug deeper (however ant-men would dig) and found the real FUN.

cackling sinister laugh as the sun goes down and a crow caws and you get the picture

Play me!

It's dangerous to go alone!

A beginning (of sorts)

Well.

Here I am, and here you are. Or maybe there is nobody here, and these keystrokes will fall upon blind eyes. ...

Lolwut?

Let's dispense with the pretense and make sense. Gah.

I'm going to occasionally use this space to write about games mainly, and sometimes other things. I like music. I like other pop culture things.

Hopefully, you will enjoy what you read here and come back. I'm also going to be creating content for youtube and twitch. Someday, I'll get around to putting some fancy links to that stuff on this blog, but for now I'll just give you some ugly hyperlinks.

 Twitch; www.twitch.tv/nerdstalgic

Youtube; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGk1art9-Mu4Cpn0O2ZwDQ (What a mess.)



If you go there now, you'll be disappointed at the lack of content. Coming Soon! I suppose.







Writing this feels very surreal. Even more surreal is the concept that I'm planning on making content that, hopefully, people will watch and derive enjoyment from and for some reason the text wrap function isn't working........

Ah, I fixed it.

Anyways, enough cynicism out of me! I do hope you'll follow my blog and other endeavors. It'll be something or it'll be nothing. (more cynicism, ha)

Next time, I'll try to scratch up something game related! 

Game On!