Y.S. Stephen - Reader | Casual Observer

So yeah, Halo needs no introduction if you are a fan of role-playing games (RPG) or any other shooter games. The game mechanics and the strength of the story are the main backbones of this franchise. Halo is a masterpiece of a story and I was thrilled for the opportunity to read one of the recent instalments of the comic book - Halo: The Escalation Library Edition , which contains Halo: Initiation #1 - #3 and Halo: Escalation #1 - #12. These volumes, if I am correct, expand mostly on the state of the Halo universe events that occurred shortly before and after Halo 4 (the game). Also, it seems some of the volumes (Initiation, especially) go way back before the events of Halo 4. In one of the Initiation volumes, we get to see how UNSC get to pick Spartans and the process they go through to become one. The writers show us how Sarah Palmer becomes a Spartan and the enhancements made to her body. There is also a story about Ilsa Zane, a rogue UNSC Spartan who hijacks Infinity. Spart...

Obsessing over certainty and worrying about achieving 100% error-free output can foster overthinking. And overthinking, in turn, prevents us from taking real action, blindsiding us against seeing the obvious when making decisions. Escaping this erroneous pattern of thought and many more are the themes of Mathew E. May's book, Winning The Brain Game: Fixing The 7 Fatal Flaws Of Thinking . When it comes to overthinking, Mathew E. May says, we have a lot to learn from children. He believes children rarely falls into this habit. Also, he believes the ways children solve day to day problems can help us escape the problem of overthinking. He writes: I remember vividly my daughter as an infant in her high chair dropping food on the floor. She was a perfect little learner, wondering what would happen if she could somehow get her strained carrots on the floor. I’m certain that the problem was somehow framed quite clearly to her— how do I get them on the ground? —perhaps not in words, ...

I think I'm becoming more cynical than I used to be - you know, life experiences and all. I have also noticed that with this cynicism comes apathy, the desire to scoff at anything without deliberating about what I could do to make it better. Cynicism blocks light; it tries to erase smudges of hope about any situation by mocking it, or mocking those taking action on it. Cynicism also breeds laziness because it gives you excuses not to try anything because you've already given yourself an excuse that nothing is going to work. I try to overcome my cynicism by opening myself to more hope. In concrete terms, I listen to people who are hopeful and doing something to make their situation better. I try and stop watching sad news (or any news, to be fair) on TV or the web. It is for the same reason I block people who post images of maimed or dead people on Facebook, asking me to pray that such things won't happen to me. I watch comedies, listen to funny stories. I try to lau...

In this age of information, you must talk to yourself often so you won't go mad.  Humans have always heard voices in their heads. Those voices, sometimes, can be helpful. Sometimes they can be unhelpful. The advent of internet information has made the echoes and the frequency of these voices louder than ever. As much as TV, magazines, emails, and Facebook posts, can be used for good things, the information they produce can also give affirmation to our worst fears or feed our narcissism.  You may think your life sucks. But there are a lot of people who are in worse positions than you are. No one has a perfect life, even if they want you to think so. Hence, don't be drowned out by information. Neither should you believe everything you read. Even if your old acquaintances or friends are leaving you in the dust and moving fast ahead in life, so what? As long as you don't navel-gaze all day, but work hard and trust in your Maker, you will turn out fine. Don't let ...

As the saying goes, to the victor goes the spoils and err... the stories. This has been the narrative of western civilisation. Our history books are distorted with fanciful tales of the victor, tales that magnifies their exploits and obscure their questionable deeds. There are not a lot of voices from the point of view of the vanquished. The few voices that exist are faint as they are being drowned out by the mainstream stories. However, seeing a graphic novel that tries to tell a tale from an alternative view is one of the reasons why I decided to pick up The Chief Mistahimaskwa , a middle-grade YA historical-based adventure story. The Chief Mistahimaskwa  is about Sarah,  a girl who gets sucked into a book and finds herself looking into the Saskatchewan Plains of 1832 where she sees the life of a young boy who is learning the ways of his people (the Cree) and would later become the chief. This story is based on what happened to the Cree during an era when the Europe...

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and the Art of Living by Krista Tippet is a collection of her thoughts and experiences on five of what she calls the "raw materials" of the human life. The contents of the book are not composed of her insights alone, but also the perspectives of people who had made an impression her over the years. One of the concepts she writes about is that of listening. As a master listener herself, she defines listening as an art. She writes: Listening is an everyday social art, but it’s an art we have neglected and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while the other person speaks until you can say what you have to say. I like the language Rachel Naomi Remen uses with young doctors to describe what they should practice: “generous listening.” Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of vulnerability—a willingness to be surprised,...