#tr30days

DAY 1

Which game in the series is your favourite?

Tomb Raider The Angel of Darkness

An underrated masterpiece. Lara Croft at her finest. It’s the evolution we deserved.

We had a strong and badass woman before, but AoD Lara combined all the qualities + a darker side because it’s how Lara deals with trauma. She doesn’t cry, she stands for helself. She was done with everyone’s bullshit after what happened in Egypt.

The cliché we have nowadays (Laraboot) is not as related as they like to say. A woman doesn’t cry because she’s killed a deer and the next day becomes a serial murderer/butcher. If that’s relatable, I’m scared.

However, Lara Croft was born brave. She ain’t taking shit. No need to make a female character young, weak, inexperienced first in order to “create an evolution” afterwards. AoD Lara showed us that there’s evolution for an already strong character.

DAY 2

What would you change in your least favorite game?

Well, it would be faster and easier to say the two things I wouldn’t change about Tomb Raider Legend: soundtrack and Amanda.

The music was good and Amanda was a fine villain.

I don’t like anything else about Legend but I’m gonna say three matters that I can’t stand:

- Zip and Alister.

I just want them to shut up. The feeling of isolation is one of my fav features in TR and from Legend to Reboot is gone. Maybe some people like to feel accompanied, but they were annoying for me. Zip was so good in TR Chronicles and Legend Zip is a pain in the ass. Let’s not talk about Alister, even fans of Legend don’t like him so... nothing to add here.

- Storyline and LAUra’s dialogues.

I find her sooo cringy. One of her most famous and beloved quotes makes me want to kill myself. “WHERE-IS-MY-MOTHER!!!!” No, just because you’re shooting while saying it doesn’t mean you’re being a badass. You’re just wasting bullets. Anyway, it’s not only this one, I can’t stand every time LAUra mentions her mother. I hate that new biography and there’s nothing I can do to stop hating it.

- Japan’s dress.

What you can’t say is that Core Lara was sexualised and think that Japan’s dress is not a sexualisation (and I’m referring to Crystal Dynamics). While there’s nothing wrong with a woman dressing sexy, there’s A LOT wrong being a hypocrite. So my problem with this dress is not the dress per se, it’s the hypocrisy behind it. Also, bikinis as outfits in-game? Clearly, the devs didn’t think that we’ve seen enough 😉

TR 30 DAY CHALLENGE: Day 1

Recently I focused my #TR30Days challenge on time with my daughter.  I called it my Mini-Me 30 Day Blessing.  I wanted to spend some focused time on her.  All too often I give what’s “left” of me (as I know many parents do).  My daughter in particular is about to start her freshman year of high school and I know how important these next 4 years are going to be for her (and me). 

What was so refreshing was that she was completely open to it.  She enjoyed me spending the time with her and showing her about being a strong, beautiful woman.  I think a lot of the success was due to the fact that I wasn’t “preaching” to her, I was showing her where to go for information, and telling her some of my “secrets”. 

Throught the process, it was interesting for me to realize that I was learning along with her.  I actually felt like doing something right as a parent with how we raised her, who we exposed her to, and what we taught her.  These are the highlights of MY learnings from her.

Our kids are tougher than we think.



She had to experience what happens when a wild animal threatens the safety of the horses and riders.  When she told me what happened, I started to get upset that she was put in that situation.  But as she continued to tell me the story she said that she understood what had to be done.  She didn’t enjoy it, had to step away to shed a few tears and collect herself, but knew it was the best thing for everyone involved.

Where did she learn this? Where did she learn to step away to collect herself so others wouldn’t get upset? AMAZING!

Our kids have some real world skills.

 I had conversations with several adults that she interacted with this summer and the one thing that kept coming up was her “people skills”.  I was told that she really knows and understands how to relate to all ages and how to influence and lead them.

“People Skills”? From a 14 year old???  WOW!

Our kids can have a positive attitude even through disappointments.

My daughter had a few disappointments this summer (broke my heart).  Things she worked so hard for and wanted so badly just were not happening for her.  While she did shed a few tears (with us) she also sought to understand.  She asked questions about what she could do differently and committed herself 100%.  This positive attitude and focused effort was recognized and in 2 of the situations she got the outcome she was hoping for. 

 Did she know that her attitude could change the outcome – doubtful?  But that didn’t matter.  She was not willing to dwell on her “bad luck” and just tried harder.

I am officially on Day 29 of my 30 Day Blessing.  I do have to admit that 30 days can go by incredibly fast!  Where did the time go?

As an update, Brianna and I are wearing our Bodybuggs.  I have gotten some rather strange looks and questions when I am in my work attire and have this “thing” on my arm that resembles a mini blood pressure cuff.  I have made the conscious decision to fully commit and wear it regardless if I was in my work out clothes or in my work clothes.  I did make the decision to remove it for a few occasions when I felt that I needed to project a “professional” image and my wardrobe was a reflection of that.  But other than that, it has had a permanent place on my left arm.  “Mini-Me” has been wearing hers as well.  I did ask her not to take it to camp – for fear of theft, damage, or loss.  That would have been a GREAT opportunity to capture all her steps and calories burned in the 100 degree weather and with all that activity.  We have decided to allow her to take it to her 2nd week of camp next week though.  I just think it will be a great learning opportunity for her to see the correlation between activity and calories burned.

I have had some opportunities to spend some 1:1 time with “Mini-Me” to discuss things like wellness, being a leader, and overcoming disappointments.  Some of these conversations have been tough.  They are often a reflection of things in my life that I still have to work on.  But they have been great moments of focused attention that I have been able to give her.

The first week of my #TR30Days Blessing was all about learning and setting ourselves up for success.  I am continuing to look for ways to help my daughter and I focus on healthy life long habits versus the quick fixes that we all look for while getting to spend quality and quantity time with my Mini-Me.  As a recap for Week 1, we:

·         Went public here, on twitter, and thanks to my father…on Facebook.

·         Got buy in from my spouse and daughter

·         Purchased BodyBuggs to become more aware of habits and activity.

·         Went to 24 Hour Fitness to register BodyBuggs and go over the program.

·         Began experimenting with BodyBuggs and entering data into the website.

·         Had Mini-Me do some research for new recipes.