NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE ✅

With this, I have played all three games included in the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

Now, how was my overall experience with all three games? I can say that, I had a great time!

When I first blogged about starting this collection, I had mentioned that I watched one or two YouTube videos to see if it was worth my time getting this collection. What I was looking for specifically was if they had anything to say about the game’s difficulty. My past experience with these games is that they are pretty difficult. It turns out that the added a new Hero difficulty that, as I had mentioned before, makes the game much more approachable. At this point in my life I am not up for challenges, I just want to enjoy the game in my own way, and it makes me happy to see the toned down difficulties for players like me.

Having finished NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2, I was browsing the YouTubes there and came across this video, Before you buy. And boy was that a mistake.

Usually, when I look for a YouTube video on a specific game, usually is to find out specific things, usually gameplay, I don’t necessarily carafe for the YouTuber’s opinion much. And even if they have a bad opinion, I don’t affect me much — most of the time. However, every once in a while, it might.

Specifically with these games, I believe that the general consensus is that, the first Ninja Gaiden is a cult classic, the second one is good, and the third is the weakest one. Kind of like with the Blade movies. Or according to this video review mediocre at best. Furthermore, it seems like in this collection, we got the “lesser versions”. These games have been redone a few times for different reasons, and the reason they didn’t remaster the “Original” and apparently “the good versions” is because the lost the original code for them.

Whatever!

I hated myself after watching this video. Why? Because then I had some influenced misconceptions about the game. I started approaching the game in a critical way. I am not a critical person when it comes to games, movies, etc. I just enjoy stuff but yeah, every once in a while my opinions can be influenced — a little —, it happens. This is why I try my best to not read reviews, I try to judge for myself. Because of this, I tend to be a fan or enjoy games and movies most people would probably hate.

That being said, here’s what I think of these games.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA: A cult classic! It is a fantastic game, and you are into puzzles, this is the game for you.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2: It’s good, not many puzzles and less exploration, but still a lot of fun.

NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE: Slicing and dicing! Hack and slash, whichever way you might call it. Much more linear story, no puzzles whatsoever and lots of blood. My kind of game. I had a fucking blast with this game, I might even replay it, it’s an action adventure joy of a game.

The first one, won’t probably play it for another few years, played it, beat it, done. The second and third game, they might have much more replay-ability value — for me.

Today it’s going to be hot, in fact, it’s been hot all week but today the highest is 93 degrees. I am lucky enough that I am allowed to come to work wearing shorts if I so choose to and I love that. In this particular pair of shorts, the right pocket it’s broken, it’s got a hole. When wearing shorts, I normally just put my phone in the right pocket because I have no fear of maybe scratching the screen too much with that little button jeans got on the right pocket. A button I have no idea what its purpose is other than scratching screens? I don’t know. The thing is that even with the hole in it there is still enough cloth to hold the phone, I just need to be careful. Today, when getting out of the car, I put my phone in the pocket, missing the pocket and when I stood up, I felt the phone slighting down my leg’s skin…

Survival instincts kicked in and with the speed of a desperate person, I grabbed my shorts and the phone and prevent its imminent, nasty fall onto the asphalt. And no, I was not wearing a case.

Phew!

I got to either fix the pocket or retrain my brain to use the phone on the left pocket just like I do with jeans. With jeans is a natural thing now, not for shorts.

A recent conversation in the Micro.blogs there had me thinking about this again. I have been using Day One, since 2013, maybe even before that, as my main journaling app. It wasn’t until 2016 that I even considered blogging. So, anything before 2016 was entered in Day One and has been in there ever since.

Once I started blogging, my blog, became my journal. I even have an IFTTT action that anything that gets published to my Micro.blog, gets into Day One as a new entry. In my blog I post about anything and everything, regardless of how personal. Well, almost everything, but I can definitely count with one hand the entries I haven’t published and even then, they are pretty old.

Though I always try to post about positive things and the things I enjoy in my blog, it is not to say that I don’t have darkness in me or that I am not battling my own demons. I just, don’t write/journal about them anymore? Wondering if that’s a healthy thing? Perhaps, I should make it a habit to reflect and journal about it, and if it’s not too bad, maybe even publish it, otherwise it’ll stay private.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma as part of the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

If I remember correctly, NINJA GAIDEN was first released back in 2004 then ported with extra content and graphical improvements and thus NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA. I think I first tried to play this on the Xbox 360, I think under the name of Ninja Gaiden Black. Kind of confusing, but same game. If you are familiar with this series, you’ll know that these games are tough! I don’t think I made it any farther than maybe the first 2 chapters before rage-quitting.

Then, this Master collection was announced, with a Nintendo Switch version, so I knew I wanted this collection on the go. I was still afraid that the game would still be difficult, and I would — again — rage-quit it.

I was watching a couple of YouTube reviews videos to see how the games would hold up and if any changes in the difficulty were made. I cannot with a hundred percent certainty say that the difficulty has been toned down for sure, but it is something that got mentioned. Moreover, they added this new HERO difficulty mode. In this mode, as you’re nearly dead, Ryu would auto-block and dodge, and you can use Nimpo as much as you want. You do have quite some time to fight your way around before you’re dead, dead. This made boss battles doable and the entire game much more approachable. The challenge is still there, but it is a wee bit more forgiving in a way.

This is how I managed to beat the game, finally, for the first time. The game holds up pretty well, besides some control mechanics and camera annoyances it is a fun game. Bosses are ridiculous and over the top, some don’t even make sense but who cares, and dashing and slicing! Female characters are over visually over sexualized, no surprise there, but it can be off-putting.

The game was about 10 hours to beat, for me, it never felt like it was dragging too much. There were times I got stuck trying to figure out what to do as the game doesn’t hold your hand like other games do, I am spoiled by modern games, I guess. But I had a good time.

If you’ve never played the series, give this Master Collection a try, I think with the new difficulty setting it is, like I’ve said before, more approachable for newcomers.

If you have ever played any of the Devil May Cry games, this will be familiar to you.

Murphy’s First Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Murphy’s Second Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks.

Murphy’s Third Law: Everything takes longer than you think it will.

Murphy’s Fourth Law: If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

Murphy’s Fifth Law: If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

Murphy’s Sixth Law: If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

Murphy’s Seventh Law: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

Murphy’s Eighth Law: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Murphy’s Ninth Law: Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

Murphy’s Tenth Law: Mother nature is a bitch.

Murphy’s Eleventh Law: It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Murphy’s Twelfth Law: Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.

Murphy’s Thirteenth Law: Every solution breeds new problems.

Murphy’s Fourteenth Law: If anything can’t go wrong on its own, someone will make it go wrong.

If Murphy’s Law can go wrong, it will.

This morning, before our scheduled walk to the part with the girls, I went out for a run/walk. I felt good running, hadn’t felt like that in a while.

Then, it was playground time. At the park/playground, we met this sweet lady with what we can presume was her granddaughter (I think her name was Addie) and their dog, Chester. The girls had a fun time throwing a tennis ball and watch Chester chasing after it.

Also, I’ve got the coolest water bottle.

Then back to the house. We had some cleaning and picking up to do, as we do.

Now that all that’s done, it’s pool time.

This morning Marley got excited. On our way to grandma’s house, she was eating an apple, a green apple. When all of a sudden, she screams, “Papa! My tooth is wiggly, my tooth is wiggly!” Yes, she’s excited about that. If her tooth falls, the tooth fairy, will bring her monies, and with that monies, she can buy an LOL-doll.

Unrelated: I didn’t think of it until just now but typing on the 11” iPad Pro with their Smart Keyboard, sort of feel like using a small typewriter.

I remember when I first got my work phone, and iPhone 8. At the time I had the iPhone XS and the 8 seemed so small — tiny. Needless to say, I rarely use that phone, it mostly never leaves my backpack. Yesterday I needed it, and when I held it, now that I have an iPhone 12 mini, it seemed so huge in a way. I bet because of the rounded edges.

Had my first field day at work this year (hooray!). As far as I am aware of, I would be having only two trials this year. I was supposed to be going down to Florida but, that con canceled as someone else could read the trial for us.

Either way, it was nice to be out of the office trailer for a change and spend sometime outdoors.

It was really nice, a little overcast and some wind, we definitely beat the heat. It took us about 3 hours to stake the plot and do the stand count.

The rest of my day went as normal, regular computer and data work. It was a good day.

Unrelated:

I’m having thoughts of closing my Twitter — again.

Today, today is a beautiful day. A beautiful morning, excellent for a walk to the park.

Marley rode the scooter 🛵

Luna rode the tricycle (I have no picture if it, apologies.

And Luna, being Luna, venture to all the climbing parts of the playground.

Also, the same way that after any sign there’s a story, I guess also with locks 🔒?

The girls had fun, mama and papa had a good walk.

First day in a little while of working out outside. Nice weather this morning, felt motivated, grabbed the kettlebell — a broomstick — and went outside. Oh, also a stretch band.

A couple of stretching / warmup exercises using the broomstick and the stretch band, and a few hindu push-ups.

The workout:

1. Single arm kettlebell swing into a high pull, 3 sets, 10 reps each side.
2. Clean into squad and press, 4 sets, 8 reps each side.
3. Burpee to into snatch, 5 sets, 5 each side.

For the burpee you basically do the push-up, one hand on the bell then snatch it. It called for 5 sets of 5 reps each side. I only did 2 sets, I am way out of shape currently.

Doing the high pulls and snatches with my left arm was rough. I am suffering from tennis elbow, I think and god lifting and swinging the bell hurt like hell.

Other than that it was an excellent workout.

Every so often I get this feeling of revamping my blog. Like let’s nuke it, and start over.

But then that would be like erasing a big part of my existence, as weird as it’s that sounds. I dislike talking numbers, but that would be about, 3,901 posts. Where 3,068 are pictures and less than 280 characters posts, and 834 with a title.

I do this with my tweets though, they get deleted every week, anything older than I-cannot-remember days. But that’s different, Twitter is just a repository for nonsense, not a blog.

It is Memorial Day Weekend. It is custom at my workplace, on a Friday prior to the long weekend, the workload is light and whenever the lab is done, we all get to go home. This is usually around noon. Knowing this, I had planned to go grocery shopping right afterwork, and beat all the people trying to buy stuff for their long weekend.

As planned, I made it to our local grocery store and the first thing I noticed was that I was one of the 5 people waring a face mask — yikes! Welcome to Idaho, I guess. I do my thing, and just when I was ready to head out to the cashier’s area I had realized, I did not have my wallet with me. First thought was, “Oh, I’ll just use Apple Pay”. Well, this particular store, does not accept Apple Pay. So, I had no other choice but to leave the cart in a corner somewhere, run to the car and grab my wallet, that normally it’s attached to the back of my iPhone. Once I had the wallet, I realized, only my driver’s license was in it, no debit card. And that’s when I panicked, I’ve got no other credit cards, only my — for whatever reason — my PayPal Cash Debit card.

Today I learned that you can still use it, even if you had no balance in your PayPal account, it will just use your bank account in file as backup.

Groceries are taken care of. Now, let’s find the damn card. Long story short, it cannot be found, so I decided to contact the bank and cancel that card.

Well, it turns out, the lady on the other side of trephine informs me that the card was cancelled on the 26th, last Wednesday, exactly the last day I remember using the card. Most likely I drop it, at the gas station, where last I remember using it, someone called the number on the back of the card and report it lost.

Guess there are good honest people out there, and I am certain this person wears a mask. And even if you don’t — thank you.

Little was out of the state on Thursday which provided McGeachin the ability to become acting governor. She used that power to sign an executive order prohibiting the state and its political subdivisions, including public schools, to enforce mask mandates.

Little signed another executive order when he returned Friday restoring control for local entities to enforce mask mandates.Source: Gov. Little reverses McGeachin’s order: ‘irresponsible, self-serving political stunt’ | KBOI

Note: I used to call these posts Something I liked this week vol X, but I am switching to just Something I liked, no weekly.

The GuliKit Route Air Bluetooth Adapter

It is quite frustrating that, currently, the Nintendo Switch does not have built-in Bluetooth. Thus, having to use regular headphones if I wanted to play on the couch while my wife and/or the kids were using the television. The only regular “headphones” I currently have access to is my gaming headset. It worked fine but for whatever reason it would stop sending audio every once in a while, it was bulky and needed constant charging and so on.

So, I looked into this adapter by GuliKit, not expensive, and it looked like it would do the job. There is nothing super special about it other than it would give the ability to pair my AirPods Pro to it or whatever Bluetooth enabled headset or headphones.

Paring the AirPods Pro was pretty easy, and they paired with noise cancellation on by default. The only problem I encountered was that, then, I had to repair the Pro’s to my phone every time I wanted to use them. Weird right?

I felt it would be better not to spend too much time troubleshooting this, so I removed any pairing records from the adapter, repaired my AirPods Pro back to the iPhone and thus to any other Macintosh device I own. Then I went ahead and paired my Power Beats Pro to the adapter. Now I have a dedicated set for just the switch, and it is working just fine.

Ever since it became a thing, I was able to set up my site to have both a light and a dark theme, and it would switch automatically depending on the system’s settings.

Said dark theme has been tinkered with for a long time until I found the right color palettes for my linking that is. Totally inspired if not blatantly stolen from one of Tweetbot’s dark mode themes 😉. So much so that I was playing with the idea of making it permanently, dark.

So, today I went ahead and made the necessary CSS changes here and there and now the lights are out on my site, if you will, with an always dark theme, ish.

I don’t think I have broken anything or messed up, but I’m sure I’ll find something at some point.

Meanwhile, I’m happy, for now.

Today’s Annie’s birthday 🥳, I won’t tell her age though 😜. It was a good day, ish. We went out for donas 🍩

photo by Annie

Later in the afternoon, we went to see dinosaurs, dinosaurs !!! I don’t have pictures because it was a drive through “expedition” and my phone was running the YouTube video describing the tour. Also, Luna, missed about 60% of the tour because she was scared 😅

Sorry.

Then took Annie to one of her favourite stores, Ulta, and the Coop, for some birras 😉.

Now we close the day with some Vietnamese food. Brought to us by Grubhub 😅. No pictures, though. I messed up the address, and we had to go down two houses to get our food, and we devoured it.

And drinking, probably one of the best beers ever.

Hop Lion by Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery

Style: IPA — American

ABV: 6.7

Rating: A+

Also, according to Marley, we are not old because we are not wrinkly 😂

This week, it’s Annie’s birthday, in fact, tomorrow May 21st. We both have today and tomorrow off and trying to do fun things. It just for her, also for the kiddos. This week was also Marley’s pre-school graduation.

As part of the many activities, Marley had a school event were they gathered at a local playground to have a last play together with her class and teachers.

Marley and Luna had a blast.

After an hour or so of playing it was time to wash the car. Believe it not, both Luna and Marley enjoy this 😅. Marley wanted to go to “the car wash with the beautiful colors”, she’s talking about al the soaps. And so we went.

Then we had lunch, a small nap then we took Annie to a local brewery, Western Collective, where she was meeting with 3 of her friends as part of her birthday shenanigans.

Once she was done with that, the girls and I picked her up and went out for supper. And we went to Annie’s — and also mine — favorite restaurant in town. To which we haven’t been in over a year, perhaps two — Casa Blanca. It is a Cuban restaurant, and Cuban cuisine is very similar to Puerto Rican cuisine, so we love this place. Luna has never been here before and Marley was probably too little to remember. It’s so good!

Masitas de puerco fritas con maduros y moros con cristianos

bistec palomilla encebollado, yuca y moros con cristianos

Marquitas

Lots of food, fun and….

I may have gotten a thing. 😎

One thing that I have always struggled with, and I am pretty sure I am not alone here, is managing my “Read-later” and Bookmarks. Lately, I have tried apps like Goodlinks, Raindrop.io, and even Micro.blog’s built-in Bookmarks.

I love GoodLinks, it is a nice-looking app and very easy to use, and it was a pink icon. My problem is, it is iOS only, and most of my browsing happens on my work computer. Raindrop.io is great and I can use their Chrome extension to easily add links and such. But the app itself it’s meh! I rarely find myself opening it to read anything later or reference something, I don’t know why.

Micro.blog’s Bookmarks, well, I only use it within Mb, I add things as I browse my timeline for later read, it works great in that regard but I never att things from outside of Mb.

All that being said, in the past the one app that had always worked for me and that I actually would open every now and then, had been Instapaper. Not sure if it’s because it was the best option at the time and it’s like muscle memory to have it and use it. Or if it’s its design and the simplicity I find in it.

Either way, I will experiment with the app again, yes the app is also iOS/macOS/iPadOS only but they have a nice website that just like Feedbin’s, it is a delight to use, I think.

I live in Idaho, Boise-fucking-Idaho, and not necessarily by choice, just the way things played out. Nor was I aware of its political tendencies and stands.

2020, was a very tense year, politically, as we all know. It was a hard year for me, I mean, seeing big trucks with both the US flag and the TRUMP one, or the TRUMP one alongside the confederate flag. Both the Trump and confederate flags made me very uncomfortable, anxious and scared, for obvious reasons.

After the elections, tensions were not quite as much. I started to feel hopeful and in some ways, safer. After that, you’d still see the same trucks but just waving the US flag, cool.

Until, the past few days. I have been seeing trucks with the US flag and one that says, “Trump 2024”. Every time I see them, all those feelings, anxiety, and fear from the pre-election day, pour in.

I dislike my state…

Today, is beernes, so I have one mission, get beer for me and the lady and 7 layer dip. I get to the store, get out, put my AirPods Pro on, which by-the-way, they were on noise with cancellation mode, and it was super weird. Then I find the beer and the dip. I walk towards the cash register. Once I put my items on the belt, I’ve realized that I forgot my wallet in the car, no big deal, I use Apple Pay. But, what about my ID, what if the card me for the beer? Well, that did happen, I get asked for ID. Then, I remembered, Annie asked yesterday for a picture of my driver’s license when she was filing the taxes, and I was away. Cash register lady was okay with that! 😅🙌🏼

I don’t often buy “expensive” top shelf wines. But when I do, is for my top-shelve main squeeze baby mama wife. 😘

My, main squeeze baby mama, girlfriend and wife, says to me;

Gaby, would you please make me a drink? I like the way you make them, they’re the best.

Me as a good, main squeeze baby papa that I am, go prepare the drink.

Then, I hear;

Oh! But you need to add this first and then this and then that.

Hol’ up a minute, I thought my drinks were the best?

Take your personal website, for example. Your writing might not appeal to others. People might find it irrelevant or even dislike your style or your message, especially if you are writing about something new and unconventional. But if it’s important to you and if it contains a bit of yourself – and it certainly will –, whatever you write and publish on your site isn’t wrong.

Source: No Wrong Notes · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer

All of this!! ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Thank you @nicola for sharing.

Tragedy, struck the Santiago-Ortiz household today, we ran out of coffee. The only coffee shop on my way to work is a Starbucks, and I can’t do Starbucks’s anymore for whatever reason. Not only that, but I was also running a little late. At this point, I just settled for work’s coffee. It was bad coffee, as expected, but what’s worse, it did not do the job.

sad