Laboratory of Mathematics and Writing

Witcher 3 It's difficult to believe this game was released over a decade ago. I left graduate school just a year prior and had just taken up teaching part-time at a community college. I had also taken up teaching full time at a high school that was populated by at-risk youth. Teaching college was my favorite job ever. Teaching high school was dreadful. There's no money in teaching, so dropping high school teaching was an easy decision. I did continue teaching college part-time. Unfortunately, there's very little money in it. Count me as one of those that was promised a high-paying job but didn't attain one after college. It wasn't exactly the best time in my life. My escape from feeling down on myself was of course PC gaming. That year, 2015, delivered two super fun games I escaped to: Fallout 4 and Witcher 3. Both are great, but Witcher 3 was on a whole new level. It cleaned up all the awards that year and is now regularly prais...

Songs That Take Me Back Vol. 3 It's time to dip into some 2000s jams. While the 90s was almost my entire childhood, the 2000s was my entire teenagehood. Unfortunately, one event casted shade over the last couple years of my teenagehood. Before that, it was almost as much of a blast as my childhood. With it came some songs that also take me back to innocent times. By this time, I was already a full-fledged rocker. I was already annoying my parents with those loud guitars, drum, bass, and screeching vocals during this time. Hahaha. Mudvayne - Not Falling I was super close to selecting "Death Blooms" because that is my favorite Mudvayne Song. I ultimately selected "Not Falling" because this song takes me back the most. I got into this band because a very close friend introduced us to them while we where in middle school. We where all hooked...

Songs That Take Me Back I figured since I'm on this 90s nostalgia trip, I might as well continue. Eventually, I'll get to the 2000s. After all, I did spend my entire teenagehood in the 2000s. That's an interesting perspective. I spent my childhood in the 90s and my teenagehood in the 2000s. That's probably a good way to summarize a large chunk of millennials. In my personal life, the 90s where a blast and so where the early 2000s. My life took a sour turn during the second half of the 2000s and it would remain less than ideal until shortly after the 2010s began. All things considered, it wasn't all that bad and I definitely made it through, scars and all. But whenever I feel the fever of nostalgia, I will always retreat to this period in my life. So, here we go again: more 90s songs that take me back. Six Pence None the Richer - Kiss Me It was a close call between either this...

Take Me Back We all get nostalgic from time to time. Although, I think my age cohort, the millenials, seem to be afflicted with it the most. Maybe it's just me. Or perhaps it is just simply documented more than any other generation. At any rate, it's time for me to take a trip down nostalgia lane. It's been awhile. Lately I've been listening to songs that would often play on the radio or appear on The Box (that's the poor man's MTV) when I was a kid. Every time I listen to them, it sparks memories and emotions that simply take me back to my childhood. There's alot. I'll try to cover as much as I can remember and without being overbearing. Pras with ODB &amp Mya - Ghetto Superstar This song is one of those one hit wonders and an excellent one. This takes me to the old house garage where I was hanging out with an old friend of mine. This song happened to be playing on the radio at that mom...

Mass Effect I actually recall when this series of games came out in the late 2000s and early 2010s. I was oddly hyped for them even though I had no intentions of playing them. I must have been hyped on behalf of gamers somehow. Perhaps I read it in a magazine or watched a commercial and fell for the marketing. What I garnered was that Mass Effect is supposed to be a more action oriented version of Knights of the Old Republic. Now, I did play the first KOTOR back in the day. While I did have quite a bit of fun, I was disappointed that the real time combat didn't exactly feel like real time combat. I was confused exactly how it functioned and how turns where determined. Luckily, it's not important to understand how each turn is determined. You could easily just select your actions and hack away at enemies. Real Time Combat I've digressed. The action in Mass Effect is indeed action oriented. There are no turns and there are no lightsab...

Max Payne 3 I played the first two Max Payne games on the originial Xbox when I was a teenager. I absolutely adored them. I also finally played Max Payne 3 all these years later. This game, too, was a lot of fun. I can't quite remember how the second one ended, but I'm pretty sure that Max came to terms with the loss of his wife and child by the end and was ready to move one. So, when the third chapter begins with him still unable to let go, it's somewhat jarring. At any rate, the shooting action is about as good as ever, even if the story is less interesting than the first two. Dwelling on the Past The story for the third installment begins with an alcoholic and depressed Max that still refuses to let go of his past tragedies. He carries his scars on his body, his personality, his character, and his very soul. Amidst his drunken depression, he takes on a job protecting rich people in the city of Sao Paulo, Br...