Stoic Artist | Esoteric Gamer | Agnostic Nerd

Circa 2000: I open Tumblr, I am rudely reminded by self that this account was birth to channel the mental energy back to the world, as the attrition of one’s mind over mundane thoughts are.. ‘sometimes’ .. painful.

Back to normal day to day English then, so daily posting isn’t something for me, I just don’t feel like spouting stuff online for the sake of it. But here’s something super interesting.. Board game, and people who play them.

I have been introducing board games back to the world, just like the Old Hunter did to me years back. It’s always fun to see how people gravitate towards one game or the other in ways I didn’t think would happen. Been introducing games to my muggle friends, Abhijeet and Rasika. Started with smaller party games like Llama and Viking See-Saw.. gradually going to Via Nebula from there and then stepping the heat a bit Orléans, which surprisingly was a hit with them - Renu’s choice worked here, I was worried about rule’s complexity. But they chewed through it like pros. The best part was the most unexpected, post game discussions with muggles.. that barely ever happens with new players. They were talking about randomness, and strategies- which was very satisfying.

A lot behind posting. So much for daily/weekly blogging. I am just not cut out for this shit. But I have to put my thoughts down somewhere.

So let’s talk EldenRing.. lived up to the wait and hype for me, I have some amazing memories of the game, however, it did not leave the lasting impact that Dark Souls or Bloodborne did. Probably because of the sheer scale of the game. I am on board with everything the Soulsborne community has praised it for, however, I do have some minor complaints - which were reusing of bosses just to add to the length, dragging the end game content, mindless and repetitive dungeons (nothing close to the tailored feel of Bloodborne’s chalice dungeons). The biggest annoyance was the emphasis on magic and sorcery and it almost felt like you are punishing meele players, especially heavy strength based builds. But all this didn’t deter my enjoyment, loved the game and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also for some reason this video got a lot of traction, something I put together just to see how’d it sound like cause it the Bb’s music and Gideon’s explanation somehow fit.

A fun day with Rob and family, Aiko took us to Yakiniku King. Stuffed with meat 🤤 robot rumba serving us our meat and little Ian just having time of his life throwing stuff around. Awesome time with them!!

Random

Random assortments of cute little finds in Tokyo. The prefecture has some distinct pavement plaque in its cities.

Dumbo doughnuts was one such find in AzabuJuban, delicious giant doughnuts that will fill you up and absolutely tasty coffee to go along.

Found the cute little crepe truck in front of Toho cinemas.

Train post#02 from Tetsudo Bunka Mura (碓氷峠鉄道文化むら).

Trains Post #01

Trains-Locomotives, have been my fascination from the time I remember them as a child. And I have heard that many share this traits. Anecdotally, I noticed I share this fascination with a lot of other men.

So locomotives, especially the older ones, I am so pulled by their sheer grandeur. The smell of grease and metal frames and casings… I can stare at it for hours. Well that’s what happened at the at Usuitoge Tetsudo Bunka Mura (碓氷峠鉄道文化むら), if it wasn’t for Renu who pulled me out of there physically & from my own imagination I’d be stuck in time with these old retired force of engineering marvel, these old decommissioned Japanese behemoth’s were spectacular. I could actually touch those giant metal wheels and those interconnected metal tubes and connections, the engine on these class 9600 steam engine was massive - it’s hard to capture the scale in photographs. It looked menacing even though it was stuck in time.

“Humans made these machine,” I constantly reminded myself. Whilst I was awestruck by this metal leviathan, I chanced upon a small toddler terrified, not going near the steam engine for a picture, even though his mother kept telling him that there nothing to worry about. I could imagine his fears: what if? Just what if this moves all of a sudden.

What would it have been like, to travel in one of these. Probably not as comfortable as the modern locomotives but one can be lost in romanticised fantasies, the steam bellowing and the classic “train cho-cho” sound, the vibrations from those heavy wheels that it’s sound on rails.

Since I can write a 300+ words essay, Tumblr is supposed to be for bite size post, but I went ahead rambling about my locomotive fascination. So going to end it here, sort of abruptly, probably a post that made no sense, but hey! enjoy the photos. Cheers!!

I never had problem staying home even before the pandemic, working on my own stuff, gaming and doing my own thing. But the lockdown did get to Renu & me when it was mandated and we couldn’t no longer have gatherings, which I do like occasionally.. so taking this trip to Nagano in Jigokudani Yaen Kōen was just so refreshing, even though it was summer and off season.

The valley famous for its natural hot springs. Japan is absolutely beautiful, the trip to Nagaon was tiring during to traffic but the visual treat we had made it up, and then to top it all up we had a beautiful place to stay for the night with an ōnsen that really took away the tiring year of lockdown.

The off season kind of worked in our favour as there were hardly any tourist save a few like us, so we didn’t really encounter any crowd or cluster of people to watch out for.

Ohh!! forgot to mention the individuals in the pictures, the Japanese Macaque, what an amazing animal to observe - they weren’t taking a dip in the water like we see in few famous pictures, cause it was quite hot in the valley. When lockdown was announced, Renu & I had got super hooked to the subject of genetics and evolution. When observing these animals even though we aren’t really related to them, it’s still hard not to see many similarities in their behaviour. The way they interact with each other felt ‘almost’ human. Now it could be my brain finding patterns where it doesn’t exist, however, one can wonder.

Renu bakes some amazing food - absolutely delicious focaccia bread. Well anything she bakes is pure blessing to be enjoyed and delight to my olfactory receptors.

Wonder why she loves baking - perhaps it’s the end result of a proper mixture and ingredients. Whilst I deeply appreciate the skills, time & care put into baking/cooking and absolutely love eating 😁, cooking and baking fails to pull me in, I have absolutely no interest in undertaking or partaking in this labour. But Renu will have none of it, she likes doing it and that in turn makes me a lucky man [damn! my health checkup is drawing close :( ]

Been eyeing this game from a long time, along with Formosa Tea from sosoGames based in Taiwan. Was surprised to see this in sale at Mercari for an awesome price, snagged it.

Love the art on this, so different to the new modern board games - whilst the new ones are insanely gorgeous, there is something very intriguing about this art and especially the cover.

If Hollow Knight hadn’t taken me by a strong grip, I’d be experiencing Miyazaki-san’s world.

Pascal’s theme from masterpiece of a game.

https://youtu.be/gmvl1xcj04w

Kal dis is mal

Eh halis dei

Oldanhi leisaka aiha

Kal dis is mal

Eh halis dei

I kranda korshi hai

Kal dis is mal

Eh halis dei

Oldahin

Kal dis is mal

Eh halis dei

Anyway, continuing my post on #NatureIsGrunge

What is it about rustic environment, rotting metal, chipping paint, rust that pulls me, probably the colour. I don’t think there is anything deep or otherwise philosophical about it - just something that makes my lazy arse pull out the phone and snap a picture cause they look absolutely beautiful.

“Everything has its time and place in life I suppose,”Dark Souls series is a game I avoided for a long time and then eventually towards the end of 2020 I decided to give it a shot (remastered version on PS4). Stating “fell in love with the game” would be both a cliche and an understatement... as with Shadow of Colossus I was totally sucked into the world Miyazakiさん so brilliantly breathed life into and platinum’ed both DS and DS3 (skipped DS2 in the interest of time and many advised it’s not a game worth spending energy on, maybe later I will play that too, it’s part of the series after all). When I said everything has it’s time, I feel that playing the DS series now when I am 31, I take it’s message and lore with a very different mindset - where I love to scrutinise each detail rather than just run and complete and area and then the boss, but really enjoy it and break it down while the session marinates itself in my head after I kept the controller down.

DS1 with its world building and spectacular level jaw dropping level design, something including From’s new games can’t boast about, was more than a treat. Of course the remaster was lack luster in technical aspects but this did not take away from the game’s enjoyment and thrill. The characters, the complex intertwined relationships they have with their covenants and world was simply a joy to explore and. Even with it’s dated gameplay animation and graphics, you feel the achievement after O&S boss fight, while your heart melts watching Sif limp and struggle to attack you (ouch!!), the majestic story of Knight Artorias and the shock when we finally face him in DLC - it’s all there. The reason I love From’s games.

And then you have DS3 which was reminiscent of Bloodborne’s world and feel (probably cause the game was out after Bloodborne). No, not the gameplay or the storytelling but the feel, the smell, the atmosphere of DS3’s world and environment. The smooth gameplay with a rich environment that beckons to be explored to every inch, the automatic smile that gets planted on our face when we chance upon those strings of lore, place and characters from DS1 or the sadness when we discover what the passing of time has done to place or characters we loved in DS1. The game’s environment while less forgiving, the enemies and bosses of DS3 aren’t. And they come with all the vengeance an AI can muster. DS3 is another game that asks you to play it multiple times, rewarding you with lore and powerful rings for taking different path on the new game + cycle.

PvP is an element I generally tend to avoid since I really don’t have time to get good at multiplayer games to enjoy the game whole experience. However, found myself immersed in DS1 & DS3’s PvP, so much so that most of my levelling up was with the souls earned from PvP, tremendously enjoyed it.

Well, I guess my rant is over. Absolutely love the series and can’t get enough. Cannot wait to find out what Miyazakiさん and everyone at From is cooking up for the upcoming Elden Ring.

“Praise the sun... And let the feast begin...”