Remembering Roller Coaster Tycoon

 

These Sims type games hold an appeal to me, especially the ones from the early 2000's that contained a pixelated isometric view, is almost as watching a diorama that came to life. I remember knowing about Roller Coaster Tycoon by mere accident while perusing at a GameStop that was located in a shopping mall I can't remember in Miami-Dade.

I got mesmerized by the concept as I have a love for Sim and strategy games as Sim City and anything in between; I love to discover the different ways or patterns that can create a successful enviroment within the game parameters.

I love roller coasters and this game came during a point in my life where I started to enjoy roller coasters and travelled often to Florida. Roller coasters became some form of a hype fixation that spawned several years of my life; even as an adult I used to enjoy going to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay to ride as much as I could the different roller coasters. Albeit, during that point in my life when I was younger and my time with the coasters was limited Roller Coaster Tycoon became some form of an escape to fill the desire of riding roller coaster which in Colombia was not possible.

Scorpion - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

The first coaster with an inversion I ever rode was the defunct Scorpion at Busch Gardens Florida and I felt free, it was the closest thing I ever experienced to flying and I wanted to do more and find aspects of my new fixation that could be turn in a hobby and that's on 2001 when I found Roller Coaster Tycoon I saw another side of gaming that I never thought it was possible "to be able to explore the dynamics of theme parks and their attractions". 

We have to think that the level of design of the game isn't too complex as is a product of the era but Chris Sawyer did a wonderful job by capturing the essence of a theme park in such a minimalist way.  The game is composed within different scenarios that share a similar set of objectives that can vary between achieving a certain rating status within the park, to achieve a number of estimated guests inside the park or even raise the park value. Each scenario itself differs vastly from each other, some of the locations are inside a small contained park and others are just as big as real theme parks.

To raise the value of each world the player needs to decorate each scenario with greenery, decorations such as fountains, entertainers who are part of the staff and also security, technicians and custodians that can keep the park clean and safe. I found the game has stand the test of time and still as entertaining as it was 20 years ago when it first got released to the market, the replay value is really good and memorable.

Brief Summary of What Can Come for the LGBT Under Trump Adminstration

With the upcoming Trump administration we have to remember that with the first time he was in the White House he executed an effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people, within the Trump administration included an effort to define transgender out of existence and erode protections for transgender students and workers by weakening gender-affirming health care that most transgender had difficulty accessing them.

During Biden's administration a lot of the Trump's-era laws were reversed, but Trump vowed to dismantle Biden's policies that offer protection for transgender students under Title IX, a federal civil right law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. In the late 1990's and early 2000's Trump expressed support for domestic partnership laws - a position that the GOP opposed at the time, he even showed personal tolerance for LGBTQ issues such as queer people serving in the military; but  his views shifted around 2011 where amid a possible presidential bid, he mentioned he was opposed to gay marriage and in 2015 he mentioned he supported traditional marriage.

Trump became the first GOP presidential nominee to mention LGBTQ issues in his 2016 Republican National Convention speech, where he pledged to protect the community in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, albeit the juxtaposition came with his election of vice-president with Mike Pence who had opposed marriage equality.

With his 2016 campaign Trump said that he would strongly consider appointing Supreme Court Justices who would overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized marriage equality, but his perspective have never been precise as he changed his point of views to adjust to what the situation need it. His comments on transgender issues, Trump said over the North Carolina bathroom ban, that transgender people "Should use the bathroom they feel appropriate" But his administration went to reverse a policy that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that corresponded with gender identity plus his administration banned some transgender people from serving in the military while Trump was in office.

Trump even mentioned if he goes back to the White House, he will impose punishment for doctors and teachers who discuss gender affirming care with minors, which the sentiment reflected on his 2024 campaign. 

References:

1. Trump on LGBT Rights: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trump-on-lgbtq-rights-rolling-back-protections-and-criminalizing-gender-nonconformity
2. Compare Trump and Harris views on LGBT Rights

The Censored Eleven

I am trying to think on how much times had changed, yet some aspects of the past are refused to be learned by generations that follow. I feel we have changed for good on some extent during the last sixty years but yet echoes of the past such as white supremacy refuse to die. The Censored Eleven are a series of eleven cartoons that are part of the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes catalogue that had been out of circulation since 1968 due the extreme racist tones that are contained in each of the animated shorts.

The shorts which derive into a plethora of stereotypes against minorities, mostly aimed at African Americans and Aboriginal populations back in the early 1900's. The problematic of the censored Eleven comes from decades-old and current day incarnations of African American stereotypes which include mammy, Mandingo, Sapphire, Uncle Tom and watermelon, many of the stereotypes created during the height of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were used to help commodify black bodies and justify slavery as a business. One example an enslaved person, forced under violence to work from sunrise to sunset, could hardly be described as lazy, yet laziness and characteristics of submissiveness historically was assigned as a stereotype of African Americans.

Hittin' the Train for Halleluiah Land

Several stereotypes were developed as offensive caricatures constructed during slavery and were subsequently popularized by minstrel shows. One trope is the representation of the mammy archetype, where the trope pictured of black women working in the homes of white families and being the caretakers for the children, the trope painted of a domestic worker who had an undying loyalty to their slaveholders.

The image of mammy and Uncle Tom to name a few, were sought to legitimize the institution of slavery, which led the mammy archetype to increase popularity after the American Civil War and into the mid 1900's.

Mass media was attached to the likeness of mass produced consumers goods from flour to motor oil, which solidified the mammy archetype as a trusted figure in the white imaginations. We can see traces of what it was spoken in the last paragraph by mentioning the concept of discriminatory advertisement which is the practice of including African bodies that will please the white sensitivity.

The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its most active period sometimes had censorship problems that were complex than those of movie features', as unlike films which they were censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made producers cautious about the restrictions.

References:

1. Popular and Pervasive Sterotypes of African Americans: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/popular-and-pervasive-stereotypes-african-americans
2. Wikipedia Censored Eleven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven
3. Marketing has a Colorism Problem: https://hbr.org/2021/05/marketing-still-has-a-colorism-problem

Que Paso con Los Hooligans

He estado tratando de buscar informacion acerca de esta banda Mexicana de la decada de 1960. La informacion que he podido conseguir en-linea ha sido escasa debido al paso del tiempo y la falta de records a nivel moderno.

Lo poco que he podido encontrar ha sido referente a la formacion del grupo original que era conformado por:

Ricardo Roca que fue la voz original del grupo, Enrique Ampudia en el bajo, Luis Felipe Cisneros en la bateria, Javier de la Cueva en el piano y Humberto Cisneros con la guitarra requinto. Para 1963 despues de cuatro albumes Juan Jose Ortega se vuelvo el vocalista principal de la banda ya que Ricardo Roca dejaria la banda para seguir con una carerra de solista.

La banda se acabo en 1968. En la decada de 1990's la banda tuvo cierto movimiento ya que sus exitos como Agujetas de Color de Rosa se volvio una telenovela y Despeinada tuvo un cover de Alejandra Guzman.

Si alguien lee esto, si tienen informacion que pueda expandir esta entrada, le agradezco de todo corazon que deje un mensaje en la seccion de comentarios. 

Referencias:

1. Los Hooligans - https://www.discogs.com/artist/2161790-Los-Hooligans-2
2. Cesar Costa - https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Costa
3. Ricardo Roca y Los Hooligans - https://serlesa.com.mx/los-hooligans/

What Remains of Edith Finch is a Powerful Message of Intergenerational Trauma

Game logo

I've been replaying What Remains of Edith Finch and it makes me think on the lessons the game develops during the exploration of the ruins of Finch Manor. The story is told within different narrators but the main one whose Edith Finch she tells the story from a third-person perspective as she serves as a bridge between her deceased relatives and towards her son who is the character that held her diary with all the family information she gathered before passing away.

I'd like to think on the dynamics of the family, trying to see there is a curse that will kill all the Finches and their descendants into an untimely horrific death, but in reality there is no curse but rather a dysfunctional family whose elders can't see their own faults and can't help the younger generations because they are self-centered into their own delusion's of a death threat that is not real but rather is directed to their own neglect of the younger ones.

Finch Manor

The game is told via a hub which is the manor of great-grandma Edie and the player can navigate towards the different rooms that act as memorials for the Finches who died. There is not direct dialogue but rather Edith goes around the different  rooms and get clues how her relatives lived. We can go through at least three generations of Finches, and we can gather information on how they died and every time there is a death in the family there are implications of adult neglect towards the kid, this is heavily noted on Gregory's arc where he is left to drown in the bathroom tub.

Molly Finch

 Molly is another character as well the first one we get exposed as is the first main room where Edith starts exploring about her family members and is the first room where the player can be exposed to the children trauma coming from the adults. Molly was the first born daughter of Edie who died after a combination of eating some holly berries and a tube of fluorinated toothpaste that probably caused her to hallucinate because she was sent the her room after being punished without having her dinner.

Probably the combination of holly berries and toothpaste caused her to enter in an hallucinogenic state which could explain her visions of being different animals such as a cat, a shark and eventually a monster that devoured humans. The death of Molly foreshadowed what would happen when the other family members died, their rooms became shrines and were left as the last day they where alive.

I can see a lot of Molly's and the different Finches as my own story, I can relate to the intergenerational trauma that followed them and eventually killed them, probably as less as dramatic as my maternal grandfather used to say "We all live long ages, but loneliness is what eventually killed us". The house that always changed was more as a prison to Edith and the vast majority of her family, the same house for me was Cartagena, the city where I was born and that was my prison without any walls but just geographical boundaries.

I always remember looking through my bedroom window, wishing to go away and eventually it became a reality, I essentially had to die to be able to live, I wanted so badly to be myself without having to be associated with the people I was bounded by blood; in that extent I am probably close to Milton which ended up leaving his family without a clue of his whereabouts and yet seemed that he lived his life to the fullest.

Sometimes we have to leave and leaving is the hardest part.

References:

1.  The Making of What Remains of Edith Finch: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-making-of-what-remains-of-edith-finch/
2. Myth-making or Neglect? Questions of Nihilism in What Remains of Edith Finch: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5955a0172e69cffa37a39b58/t/645f6bc3cebb40072a8f32a7/1683975108546/nihilism-zawadzki-draft3.pdf
3. Molly Finch: https://what-remains-of-edith-finch.fandom.com/wiki/Molly_Finch
4. Milton Finch: https://what-remains-of-edith-finch.fandom.com/wiki/Milton_Finch

Fernando Botero Analysis Social e Historico

 

Fernando Botero

El arte de Botero (1932 - 2023) es reconozible por las rellenas figuras que adornan sus diferentes trabajos en el campo de la escultura y la pintura, pero la esencia de sus trabajos yace una fundacion de una critica social a los diferentes gobiernos Colombianos y las realidades que se viven en el pais.

Es facil  reconocer la obra de Botero pero es raro reconocer que su trabajo politico habla de como su periodo de crecimiento artistico durante La Violencia (1948-58) le ayudo a justificar su estilo; su primera pieza la vendio a los 16 años y mientras estaba en la secundaria trabajo como ilustrador.

A lo largo de su carrera, Botero gano fama con reinterpretaciones de piezas del Renacimiento como Papa Leo X (1964), El Retrato de Arnolfini (1978) y La Mona Lisa (1978), el tambien uso su trabajo para crear satira de la pomposidad del clerigo, generales y dictadores de Latino America.

Mona Lisa (1978)

Aunque la politica no tomo parte mayoritaria de su tematica en el arte, Botero creo trabajos que reflejan el conflicto Colombiano, con el paso del tiempo hubo una evolucion que llevo a reflejar el lamento del conflicto como el cuadro de La Muerte de Escobar (1999) y la evolucion del conflicto Colombiano hacia un problema de guerrillas e insurgencias que generaron problemas en diferentes ciudades como su natal Medellin.

En el 2003 en el conflicto de la prision de Abu Ghraib llevo a Botero a trabajar en su pieza con mas contendio politico, la cual fue la tortura de prisioneros Iraquies en manos de la Armada de Estados Unidos. La serie de Abu Ghraib produjo mas de 200 dibujos y pinturas de la serie de abusos a los prisioneros en los cuales los prisioneros tenian caras de dolor y angustia y al mismo tiempo le dio humanidad.

Carro Bomba, 1999

Con el avistamiento del nuevo milenio, la exploracion de Botero con el conflicto armado se volvio mas frequente, el cual explico que el estaba en contra de como el arte se volvia un testigo con el tiempo, como un arma de combate, pero llego el momento que sintio obligacion de dejar un testimonio de un momento irracional de la historia.

Hay que pensar que la violencia esta ligada en la historia de numerosas culturas a lo largo de Latino America y el continente ha sido sujeto de problemas sociales y politicos, llevando a sus habitantes a educar futuras generaciones para poder discutir la violencia y el trauma, que son puntos que han tenido un valor de unidad en diferentes paises Latinoamericanos. Este discurso ha servido como un aspecto integral para el colectivo en desarollar culturas que enfatizan en la empatia de los derechos humanos.

Debido a los roles que artistas o ciudadanos ordinarios, han llevado a la captura de narraciones que estan ligadas a su vida cotidiana, expresiones narrativas que han sido llevadas a la pintura, cine, television y otros medios en las cuales se puede ver la experiencia comunitaria que esta ligada a la reflexion personal.

Masacre en Colombia

El problema esta en que la violencia ha sido el punto central en la contemporaneidad de Latino America y es un problema que va enfocado hacia el actual milenio; en cierto punto, la manera de expresion ha sido llevada a la normalidad de la violencia en donde se ha vuelto ciclica y el arte se ha vuelto uno de los metodos para llevar a cabo una comunicacion sobre una serie de problemas intergeneracionales en donde se puede ilustrar las circunstancias para un publico en general.

La Violencia fue un periodo significante en la historia Colombiana que influencio las creaciones artisticas de Fernando Botero (1948 a 1958), esta decada tumultosa estuvo marcada por un conflicto partisano situado en las areas rurales Colombianas, la cual tuvo como catalisador el asesinato de Jorge Eliecer Gaitan quien fue el candidato presidencial del Partido Liberal. Este periodo turbulento tuvo una serie de masacres que quedaron plasmadas en el colectivo Colombiano a lo largo de la historia que dejaron huellas profundas que han durado hasta el siglo 21.

Reference:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar
• Fernando Botero's Political Masterworks - https://americasquarterly.org/article/fernando-boteros-political-masterworks/
• U.S. Tourist in Colombia caught in a new wave of kidnappings https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/23/us-tourists-killed-kidnapping-colombia/
• Fernando Botero: Exploring Violence Through Art https://www.byarcadia.org/post/fernando-botero-exploring-violence-through-colombian-art

Life

I'm writing again and is been a slowly but steady process, I spend 2 weeks in the hospital last month due pneumonia and having fluids in my left lung. I turned 40 also three days ago and between all the madness it gave me a perspective in life towards the paths I had taken within education and painting.

I haven't paint or create anything in two months, part has been money to keep the subscription of Adobe valid and the other part I was really sick that I couldn't sustain the idea of enjoying my hobbies or even get clean shaven. Those two weeks in the hospital took a toll on my health where I lost weight in a short amount of time and lung capacity.

When it started I woke up gasping for air on the first day of Spring Break, I couldn't breath and had to ask my partner to take me to the emergency room as quickly as possible as I was having respiratory issues. In the ER, it showed that I was having a tachycardia and my hearth rate was extremely high.

From the ER I ended up in the hospital, I have to confess I remember some of it because much of the time I was asleep due it was difficult to stay awake. Is interesting how much you can care about your personal hygiene when you are sick and how much you care about you being clean after you start feeling better.

I didn't showered for 12 days and when I was back at home I took a long shower and shaved, I couldn't stand the beard being long and I was happy to be able to bathe finally because I was smelling after two weeks but also because I was feeling capable of doing something after loosing muscle mass and not having energy.

One thing about loosing muscle mass in such a short amount  is that the bare minimum tasks such as driving or picking up groceries in the supermarket are almost impossible to do. Around a week later I went to Aldi's and tried to pick up some groceries, I drove there and it felt wonderful but grabbing the basket back home became a problem because it felt heavy and I was out of breath with something that never bothered me to do.

Is been two and half weeks since I am back at work and it still a struggle to grab the energy but is not as it was two weeks ago and every day it feels somewhat better.