PlayStation 5

Two years later, I finally managed to purchase brand new PlayStation 5. As a casual gamer, I love immersing myself into video game worlds. These past few years most my gaming has been primarily been handheld on the Nintendo Switch. The only PS4 console gaming that I’ve done has been 100% focused only on GTA 5, Skyrim, and The Witcher 3. I’ve definitely spent over 1,000 hours on just these three games only. So one of my biggest motivations on getting a PS5, was to finally give myself an excuse to branch out off those three games.

I purchased a brand new 55 inch LG 4K/HDR TV that is 120 GHz capable earlier in the year, so as far as having a TV, I was already more than ready to make the Next-Gen Console jump.

Buying
I follow Wario64 on Twitter, which is a fantastic account that posts video game deals. So when I saw that Best Buy was finally getting PS5 consoles for Black Friday, I immediately jumped on it (I refused to give any scumbag scalper on Ebay or OfferUP any money). I decided to go big on my Nex-Gen Console experience, so I purchased a 2TB WD – BLACK SN850 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 Officially Licensed for PS5 drive with so I don’t have to worry about running out of disk space (Black Friday special $220.00). The expansion drive install was absolutely painless.

Since I was already in the Black Friday spirit, I also purchased a Black and Camo DualSense controller, and some additional PS5 Games that were on sale for fairly cheap (including my third copy of GTA 5!). I must say, I absolutely love the new DualSense controller, it’s very comfortable the rumble feedback is the best of any controller I’ve used.

Next-Gen Experience
For the first game to start my Next-Gen Console experience, I debated between Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut. I opted start with Horizon Forbidden West, given that I played Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4 already and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Needless to say, I’m over 20 hours into the game, and it has been somewhat of a let down. While the Horizon Forbidden West world and gameplay is stunning and gorgeous, the story itself has been somewhat boring. Thus said, I can’t to start playing new games on my shiny new PlayStation 5 console.

Book Review – 1212 Las Navas

1212 Las Navas is a historical novel based on the events around The Battle of Las Navas of Tolosa. I read this book immediately after finishing Las Navas de Tolosa: 1212 la batalla que decidió la Reconquista. This meant, the historical facts were fresh in my mind while reading this book, which I felt this added to even a more full immersive experience while reading this book. Thus said, you don’t have know the integrate details of the historical events. The author does an excellent job describing the setting, without being a horrible info dump. Speaking of the author, this is a very beautifully written book. It is so beautifully written that, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with so many poetic descriptions of the sun!

The story is equally presented from the point of view of the three fictional Crusaders and Moors (although some may have been true historical people). With the different characters having their own unique story arcs that culminates in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. This is such a well crafted story, that almost all the time I was reading this book, I constantly had the thought of this story being adapted into a movie directed by Mel Gibson! This is how good this story is.

New Uplift Standing Desk

Cabling

Image 1 of 5

Cabling

When I think of the tech purchases that have drastically changed my life in a positive way, the Amazon Kindle, and the Apple AirPods immediately come to my mind. However my new Uplift sit stand desk has completely blown everything out of the water.

I’ve been wanting a sit stand desk for years. So now that I work remote fulltime, it was a “no brainer” for me to invest in a proper quality desk, instead of a cheap IKEA desk, I’ve been using these last two years. As far as sit stand desk brands is concerned, it seemed that Uplift Desk was the brand that appeared with the most praise, so I opted to go with them. I think the main reason why people seem to love Uplift Desk is because of their high level of customizable options. It’s absolutely awesome! For my desk configuration I chose the following:

With the following extras:

Aside from the wealth of customizable options, the quality of the desk and its parts is extremely high quality. Not once, that I perceived a piece as being flimsy, and cheaply made, quite the opposite. As soon as I started opening the packages and started building the desk, I immediately noticed the high quality of their products. It’s diffidently not IKEA!

Assembly was overall a fairly easy process all together. It was very intimidating at first, given the large number of different parts it required, at least for my configuration. But the instructions were really easy to follow. The assembly was a 1,000 times easier than when I built my Moducase!

Shortly after finishing building the desk, I realized I wasn’t really happy using my original laptop stand, so I quickly jumped on Uplifts Desk’s website and ordered their laptop mount and it’s corresponding Crestview Single Monitor Arm. Fast-forward four days later, I installed the monitor arm and laptop mount, and my setup finally looked the way I wanted it! The only different customization that I’ve added was the addition of LED strip lights on the back of the desk to give it that extra eye-candy look. The desk setup, exceeded my expectations, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been using it daily and I honestly can’t look back. It’s been one of the best decisions I could’ve done, not only has it improved my productivity, it’s definitely helped my posture and physical health (as cliché as it sounds). The entire productivity improvements a sit stand brings to be will have an entire blog post dedicated to it.

Final thoughts:

Cost, at just over $1,600 for the complete setup. I can genuinely say it’s totally worth it. Not only do I feel more productive working on my new desk, I feel that it also improved into my well being by standing through out the day while working.

I’ve mentioned about Uplift Desk’s extremely fast free shipping. I have to mention that during my purchase, FedEx lost one package. I contacted Uplift Desk support, and they were able to ship out the replacement part on the say day. Not only do they have good customer service, but they definitely stand behind their products as the desk comes with a 15 year warranty!

I’m extremely happy with my new desk setup.

Book Review – Las Navas de Tolosa

Las Navas de Tolosa: 1212 la batalla que decidió la Reconquista (The Battle that decided the Reconquest) is the best book that anyone can read regarding the massive crusade that is known to history as The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.

Although it seems small in scope, a book being solely about a single battle. The vast amount of information in this book is awesome. The amount of work the author did to write book is incredible. To fully understand the battle, the author goes into great detail of the political landscape of the Iberia Peninsula, on both Christian and Muslim sides. He goes into great detail how the military campaign was organized from a strategical approach. We get to learn about crusading and jihad ideology, and finally we learn about the tactics that was used in the battlefield.

This is a purely scholarly focused book, also with a heavily anthropology focus. The author literally describes the march of both armies to the battle with clear precision. He literally gives us the actual GPS coordinates, with clear details describing the environment! Perhaps the only drawback of this book is that it doesn’t include maps. Having already done an excellent job researching and describing the journey and battle, I feel that with the addition of maps, would have taking this already incredible book to an even higher standard.


(YouTube Video has some inaccuracies)

Book Review – The Templars and the Shroud of Christ

The Templars and the Shroud of Christ: A Priceless Relic in the Dawn of the Christian Era and the Men Who Swore to Protect It, is the second book written by Barbara Frale that I’ve read. The first being The Templars: The Secret History Revealed. One of the leading scholars and expert in Templar history, the author does an excellent job writing about Templar and crusader history from a purely neutral academic standpoint.

This book can be divided into three sections. First is a general history of The Knights Templar, the second is history and importance of relics in Christianity, and lastly the history of the Shroud of Christ or Shroud of Turin as it’s widely known.

I already have a good firm knowledge on Templar history, so the first section of this book was a mere refresher. I did however, learned a lot starting from the second section of this book. For example, I’ve seen the Madylion of Edessa image a lot throughout eastern Christianity, but I never knew its history, or what was its name. This was something that I learned by reading this book. In addition to this important relic, we read about other important relics, and most importantly the significance of the relics and iconography in Christianity. The third and final section of this book, deals with obscure history of the Shroud of Christ, and how it landed in the Western Europe.

Geralt of Rivia 1/3 – Prime 1 Studio Statue

Geralt of Rivia 1/3

Image 1 of 17

Geralt of Rivia 1/3


I’m subscribed to quite a few statue collection YouTube channels, and one thing they all have in common is they all agree that 1/3 is the best scale for a premium high-end statue. I can now see why people love this scale above others. Geralt of Rivia by Prime 1 Studio is my second 1/3 scale statue, and just like the 1/3 Statue of Guts the Black Swordsman’s, the level of detail that we get with this larger scale really makes statue stand.

Unlike the original Geralt of Rivia and Geralt of Rivia Skillege armor 1/4 statues, where the statue concept was entirely created by Prime 1 Studio. For this statue, the museum type pose comes from a promotional artwork by CD Project Red.
Geralt holding three headless harpies, perfectly showcases Geralt as the great badass monster slayer.

The base of this statue is of a harpy nest, filled with feathers belonging to the dead harpies, some old swords, and dead human skeletons. All of which add to the story concept of the statue display is portray. Given how similar the bases are, this statue pairs beautifully with the Gut’s Black Swordsman’s. I honestly can’t decide which of those two are my favorite statue!

I decided to purchase the Deluxe version of this statue, which comes with three extra heads. All of which are different enough for me that’s its worth the additional $150. The only negative thing about this statue is just how massive and heavy the base is. Massive bases seem to be a common trait among all Prime 1 Studio statues, regardless of the scale, but the base on this statue is absolutely massive. Which in my opinion, they couldn’t easily made it smaller without affecting the overall theme and concept of the statue.

Book Review – Leyendas de la Reconquista

Leyendas de la Reconquista is a collection of short stories regarding the most important myths and legends of the Reconquista. Starting from the legendary events of Covadonga, to the ones that took place in the final events in the conquest of Granada. The stories are presented from the perspective as they occurred, as such all the stories have that epic and fictional high fantasy element to them. All of which make the legends and stories to be more spectacular in my opinion. The stories are beautifully crafted, where anyone that is not familiar with the Reconquista, can easily understand the stories without delving to deep into the rich and complex history of the events surrounding it.

Thanks to this book, I learned about new obscure myths and legends from the Reconquista that I wasn’t aware of, even though I consider myself to be extremely knowledgeable on this subject! Perhaps the only glaring missing legend that wasn’t included on this book, was the legends about the famous knight Bernardo del Carpio.

Book Review – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven KingdomsA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was my return to the wonderful world of A Song of Ice and Fire. I read this book out of wimp, this mainly because I decided stopped reading A Dance with Dragons about half-way through because I felt it was more of the same as of A Feast for Crows, where the story was going at such a dire pace; it was becoming somewhat painful to endure. Like the rest of the world, I’m hopeful of George RR Martin’s assertion of working full time on the next novel The Winds of Winter, and finally finish the novel, would eventually motivate me to restart A Dance with Dragons once The Windows of Winter is published. So for now, I have the prequels.

This book is awesome, it was such a pleasant and enjoyable read, it truly reminded me why I loved the first three novels of A Song of Ice and Fire. In this book, we get to read the adventures of a “hedge knight” ie knight errant Ser Duncan “The Tall” and his squire, Egg. In a way, this book felt like the Don Quixote of ASoIaF. Thus said, the setting is very much Westeros, so the brutally of this fictional world is the same that we already know and love.

The book is divided into three short stories ie novellas. The standalone stories are not necessarily connected (as far as I know) to the main story line in A Song of Ice and Fire. However one thing that I really liked about this collection of short stories, was reading more about the history of the world and the current state of it. This book includes illustrations that certainly help bring the stories to life. Reading this book actually motivated me to go back to my book shelf and checkout The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones which has been sitting there anxiously waiting to be read.

Book Review – Hernán Cortés: Encuentro y conquista

Hernán Cortés: Encuentro y conquista Hernán Cortés: Encuentro y conquista is the third book that I’ve read from the Mexican author Juan Miguel Zunzunegui, and I must say this book has been my favorite thus far. For starters, this book has the best opening line of any book that I have ever read. ¿Quién nos enseñó a odiarnos a nosotros mismos? (Who taught us to hate ourselves?) With this simple question, all discussion to attempt to answer it, is absolutely endless.

Only behind Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés is arguably the second most vilified person in the Hispanic Latin world. This book goes into the different complex social and political reasons why Cortés is seen as villain, rather than a hero. Whose deeds are among the most spectacular in all of human history, changing it forever. Theirs no question that the author of this book is an admirer of Hernán Cortés. (As all Hispanics should be! But I digress) However the author does not hide any of the flaws that Cortés had.

It seems like in this modern era, all logic common sense is quality rather than the norm. In a world were logic and common sense prevailed, Hernán Cortés would be seen as a hero, and the “Black Legend” would be seen a complete propaganda bullshit. This book goes in depth on the different factors on why history has been distorted in such an absurd manner, that simple facts are seen as untrue, and why lies repeated thousands of times would somehow become truths in societies.

By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll learn why Hernán Cortés can be compared to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, as one of histories’ greatest military commanders whose heroic deeds will be known until the end of time.

Book Review – Imperiofobia y leyenda negra


Imperiofobia y leyenda negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos y el Imperio español is a tremendous eye-opening book. I originally read this book during the Covid lockdowns two years ago, and now having re-read it again, I must say it’s a must read book to understand current world politics, by understand our history.

This book goes into deep detail regarding the common characteristics of empires but more importantly, on the difference between them. Like differences of imperialism vs imperial and of the different types of empires, ie what makes them good and bad.

The book covers many empires, from the Roman, Ottoman, French, British, Spanish, Russian, and USA empires. The most fascinating thing about this book is related to the rivalries between empires, hence the need to create a “black legend” against it. The most glaring being about the Spanish Empire. Which was the main reason why I decided to read this book, as it’s one of the books that I constantly see being mentioned among other fellow hispanists as a must read because it does a brilliant job debugging the “black legend” of the Spanish Empire. A “black legend”, being a series of arguments created by the Anglo Protestant world, whose main objective was (and still is) to demonstrate inferiority of the Hispanic and Catholic world. The author of this book, María Elvira Roca Barea does not hold any punches, she does a brilliant job calling out the complete bullshit created by Anglo/Germanic Protestant world against the Hispanic and general Latin world in order to justify their existence as newly reformed religious entities. It’s so blatant and obvious that it reminded me of a talk I saw of Dr. Guadalupe Jiménez Codinach regarding the blatant falsehoods she has to deal when working with US Universities regarding Hispanic history, of which she believes comes from the disdain that stems from the Spanish “black legend”.

To conclude this book also mentions the USA and Russian empires and the “black legend” among them, which is quite important to understand the current state of world politics, ie War in Ukraine. It’s absolutely fascinating to see the parallels between these two empires and how they’re both similar to the British and Spanish Empire respectively. Where for greater part of a century the British set the goal to fully balkanized the Spanish Empire in the Americas, is identical to the United States’ goal of balkanizing The Russian Federation into many distinctive petty states. Will history repeat itself? We only have to look back at history to understand.

Ironically, this is one of those books that I really hope one day gets an English translation. So people can learn about the “black legends” and histories of the worlds different empires, from a well researched academic scholar.