Leftover Thought From The Weekend.
I think that most of the people I’ve met in my lifetime don’t want their lives fixed. They don’t want their problems solved, their dramas, their stories resolved or messes cleaned up. They don’t want things sorted out because then what would they have left? They would be left alone with just the their own insecurities and doubts, and without their distractions, they would be forced to really dig deep to answer to life’s real questions.
A moment of perfection is well worth the effort; and I think a moment is the most you can honestly expect from perfection. Perfection is on a very tight schedule.
The only reason I ever ask people how their weekend was is so I can tell them about mine. I need to work on that.
Until you have a child, it always seems like one you love and the one who loves you are never, the same person.
There is really very little about me that is a “Paul Hobson exclusive”. I am a product made up of the people I’ve known, the books I’ve read, the hobbies I have, and the places I’ve been.
Thoughts Abouts Cancer and Conversations
When people who have faced a potentially fatal illness talk to each other, a truly remarkable event occurs. When people have been forced to deal with death and the questions it brings, each person understands that feeling of uncertainty. Each person remembers wondering what conversation would be their last. Through this, the rules speaking and listening change completely.
Listening is no longer waiting for your turn to speak, or trying finishing the other person’s sentences. Speaking is no longer telling a cute little story, or raising your voice in a ‘fake interest’ falsetto. No. Now when we talk, we’re building something. A structure of thought and emotion that each of us contributes to… and we all get to walk away with. When the conversation is over, we’re all a little different than we were before it started. And in this single way… we feel sorry for all the people of the world who have never been sick.
Thoughts About: Assassin’s Creed
The Break Down:
Assassin’s Creed tells two stories. Story one places you in the modern day shoes of man kidnapped by a fictitious pharmaceutical company for the purposes of genetic experimentation. It turns out a ancestor of your used to be an uber assassin way back in the day that stole and hid an invaluable artifact. The corp. is forcing you to use a funky machine that allows you to relive your ancestor’s memories, via DNA sequencing, and to and figure out artifact was lost.
The Game Play:
The game hits player control, actions and environments dead on. Once I got the controls down, I felt like the character was my marionette. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’ve had more control in a game and this especially shine through during combat. Getting involved in rooftop sword and dagger duels with multiple guards chasing your character didn’t get old once. Quickly and quietly assassinating guards and templars knights, then disappearing into a crowded marketplace feels very rewarding.
Each of the 3 cities you can visit in the game feels alive. The street and markets are loud and crowded, back alleyways are quite and populated with a few undesirable characters, and beggars harass you for money. The buildings are beautiful and just about all of them your character can climb. I felt glee the first time I climbed to the top of a towering church steeple to gaze down at the busy street below.
Its just a shame that with such great character control, and a beautiful, alive sandbox for your character to play in that there is not much for you to do. Outside of getting into fights with guards and carrying out one of the 9 assassinations that the game requires, the only other things to do in the city are: eavesdrop on conspirators, pickpocket knives from thugs or documents from spies, beat up informants for information, collect flags hidden throughout the city, compete in flag collection races (races!?!) to get information for informants, and reach high viewpoints to map out the city. It’s also worth noting that you would have to complete at least three of these activities before you could begin each one of the games primary assassinations.
Forced to this mechanic, the game play of each assassination, for me, consisted of; finding the high viewpoint to map city, finding the target to pickpocket, finding the target to eavesdrop on, finding the target to beat up, finding the primary assassination target and then taking him out. Rinse and repeat 8 times.
The Final Verdict:
After the 16 hours of play it took me to complete it, I decided Assassin’s Creed is good, but it could have been, and should have been, great. About half way through the game the lack of side missions and stale objectives just made me wish for the ending. Speaking of endings, the game has two; a closing for each story. One of them is satisfying, the other can’t really be called an ending at all. I would stand in line for Assassin’s Creed 2 if it picked up EXACTLY where this one left off, and they did something about the stale game play and mission variety.
6/10
A Borrowed Post: Man On Fire: Great Christian Movie.
I don’t normally borrow posts from other people’s blogs, but this post (originally written by Prodigal Jon over at Stuff Christians Like) really stood out as a fantastic comparison of Christianity and the movie Man On Fire.
In the film, Denzel Washington plays the role of Creasy, an alcoholic black ops military man in Mexico City serving as a bodyguard for a little girl named Pita. Pita is a blonde sprite of a seven-year-old played by the ubiquitous Dakota Fanning. Throughout the first half of the film we watch as Creasy hits rock bottom, only to find a new reason to live in Pita. Along the way, we see him spend increasing amounts of time in the Bible.
But because this at the core a revenge film, Pita is kidnapped after a piano lesson. Creasy is shot multiple times and the doctors say that without a month of rest, he will die. While Creasy is trapped in bed, Pita is executed by the kidnappers. He is devastated, his world collapsing in scenes of Pita laughing and playing. He leaves the hospital and decides to track down the killers.
In a hinge scene the young mother of Pita asks Creasy what he is going to do. His response is simple, “What I do best, I’m going to kill em. Anyone that was involved, anyone that profited from it, anyone that opens their eyes at me.” This statement serves as the doorway to a veritable house of pain and suffering. The violence is shocking in both its graphicness and its creativity.
At this point, my initial idea that I saw the love of Christ in this movie seems impossible. We do not serve a God that would torture a man with a cigarette lighter or plant a plastic explosive inside another kidnapper. Our God is not cruel. I think that’s worthy of argument though, at least from an Old Testament point of view. Would the Egyptian mothers that woke to find their first born children dead in their beds agree that God can not be cruel? Would the residents of Sodom, with flesh ripped apart by sulfur falling from the sky agree that God is not violent? I’m not saying these things were not justified. I just think that maybe we make too light of the fury and might of God.