Machinarium

This is just a great game so be sure to not miss it. The designs, characters, puzzles, all are combined very creatively and artisticly which is very hard to find in games nowadays.

A very talented animator classmate, Bjarki introduced me with this studio's (Amanita) previous game: Samarost, which I loved at first sight. The puzzles were a little bit easy and the adventure was short comparing to Machinarium but the visuals and animations were just brilliant as well. This was the point I got interested in this studio's work. Machinarium is their first full-length game so be sure to support their effort if you liked the demo.



Buy it on steam or from their web site: amanita.

Spirituality & Now

A very meaningful speech from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Buddhist meditation master. Video is from the documentary movie: Zeitgeist.
The speech is quite powerful if you think deeply about it and try to get the real message. And I am not talking about fashionized and emptied "carpe diem" approach. I think, in this approach, people tried to be "seemed" as they were living the the moment fully (seemingly energized about everything, getting into different costumes, styles, trying to be different from the guy next door, getting -so called- personalized with the help of the goods they buy). Because they were doing it for the sake of doing it, in contrast, they were more like cloning themselves: creating people who use same set of behaviours, same looks, same way of thinking. People who care about packaging instead of actual important content. This was/is just not right.



Text:

Spirituality is a particular term which actually means dealing with intuition.
In the theistic tradition there is a notion of clinging into a word. A certain act is regarded as displeasing to a divine principles. A certain act is regarded as pleasing for the divine … whatever.
In the tradition of non-theoism, however, it is very direct — that the case history are not particularly important. What is actually important is here and now. Now is definitely now. we try to experience what is available there, on the spot. There is no point in thinking that a past did exist that we could have now.
This is now. This very moment. Nothing mystical, just now, very simple, straight forward. and from that nowness, however, arises a sense of intelligence always that you are constantly interacting with reality one by one. Spot by spot. Constantly. We actually experience fantastic precision, always.But we are threatened by the now so we jump to the past or the future. Paying attention to the materials that exist in our life — such rich life that we lead — all these choices takes place all the time, but none of them regarded as bad or good per say — everything we experience are unconditional experience. They don’t come along with a label saying ‘this is regarded as bad’, ‘this is good’. But we experience them but we don’t actually pay heed to them properly. we don’t actually regard that we are going somewhere. We regard that as a hassle. waiting to be dead. That is a problem. That is not trusting the nowness properly, that what is the actual experience now possesses a lot of powerful things. It is so powerful that we can’t face it. Therefore, we have to borrow from the past and invite the future all the time.
Maybe that’s why we seek religion.
Maybe that’s why we march in the street.
Maybe that’s why we complain to society.
Maybe that’s why we vote for the presidents.
It is quite ironic. Very funny indeed.