The Pixel Meditations

Howl’s Moving Castle, released in 2003, is one of the most famous movies in the Ghibli canon of films. Clearly, Hayao Miyazaki had some interesting ideas for this film when he first conceived of it – apparently being directly inspired to make the film by the horror he was feeling from the American invasion of Iraq. True to that premise, Howl’s Moving Castle is a moving and powerful anti-war tale. In this story, we see two opposing nations at war with each other for seemingly arbitrary reasons – meanwhile cities are burned, lives are forever changed, and the environment suffers. Amidst this conflict we follow Sophie, a young milliner (hat maker), who after an encounter with the Witch of the Waste is turned into an old lady. In the process of turning into an old lady, we delve into societal issues facing the elderly but also learn how compassion and dignity seemingly have the power to end wars. There are many parts to this story that we felt were fascinating and we hope you enjoy the episode!

If you like this topic, please enjoy our episode and feel free to subscribe to other content by the Pixel Meditations!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Check out Taiwan Jon on Spotify

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Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

Would you choose to live forever? It’s an age-old question, and while the thought of not dying is tantalizing, the Greek gods might be one of our best glimpses into what life would really be like if we were to live forever. Sure, you have power, and life is relatively easy, but would there be meaning? Would anything really matter? Would you have the capacity to be a good person in such a state of existence?

These are questions Madeline Miller explores in her novel, Circe. Circe is the legendary witch, who in The Odyssey, turns men into pigs. The Ancient Greek hero, Odysseus, then lands on her island and convinces her to turn his men back into humans before having a semi-close relationship with the witch.

Miller’s book gives a deeper look into Circe as a character, all the while, weaving in multiple familiar Greek myths.

While we dissect the book—and think you should read it—we cover the plot in this episode in order to dig out some important and interesting themes. Are the Greek gods really benevolent beings? Would living for eternity be better than being a mortal? Should you follow fate and do only what you are “destined” to do?

Whether you have read the book or not, we hope you enjoy the episode!

If you like this topic, please enjoy our episode and feel free to subscribe to other content by the Pixel Meditations!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Check out Taiwan Jon on Spotify

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

This pandemic has certainly shifted human behavior in ways that we hardly imagined possible only a few months ago. For one, we are spending a lot more time inside than we regularly would. Like many people, we have found this time challenging, but also interesting and in this episode we try and address how you can survive and even thrive while spending most of your time indoors.

Certainly, being inside has many potentially very negative health consequences like lack physical exercise, lack of essential sunlight to produce vitamin D, and reduced time with friends and family. There are many ways we can address these challenges – such as by finding creative ways to work inside, by making the inside of our living spaces full of green plants and things that remind us of outside, or by engaging in meaningful activities that give our lives the purpose that we would otherwise inherently get from experiences outside.

If you like this topic, please enjoy our episode and feel free to subscribe to other content by the Pixel Meditations!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Check out Taiwan Jon on Spotify

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

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The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

In this episode of the Pixel Meditations, we discuss minimalism, a topic that has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. We discuss the various reasons why minimalism has become popular and some possible applications of it in our own personal lives. We talk about it from a physical perspective, as well as just a philosophy and way of thinking about the universe. Our final conclusion is that minimalism is more than just about owning less, but owning things that are intentional and essential to our lives, and discarding things that aren’t. This was a fun episode and we hope to make more like this in the future!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Check out Taiwan Jon on Spotify

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

Photo Credit: https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=708805&lang=Swedish

Find Steve

Twitter: @thinkinvagabond

Website: The Thinking Vagabond

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

In this episode, we invite special guest Jonthan McDougall to the episode to talk about the earlier era of Sega in the console hardware business. We talk about the Sega Master System, Genesis, CD, 32X, and the Game Gear.

On top of that, we discuss Sega’s preference for arcade games, what their business model was, and cap it off with some of our favorite Sega games and why they were special. If you love Sega or want to learn more about their golden years, click play now.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Check out Taiwan Jon on Spotify

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

Photo Credit: https://www.ft.com/content/a52d2ac2-832b-11ea-b6e9-a94cffd1d9bf

Find Steve

Twitter: @thinkinvagabond

Website: The Thinking Vagabond

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

In this episode of the Pixel Meditations, we talk about the preponderance of remakes in media right now. We start by talking about if this is a new trend in media and whether or not it has historical precedence. We get into the ways in which video games, movies, and tv shows have been remade and why these remakes appear to be so successful and why there appears to be such a high demand for them. If you like this episode, please comment or email us about another general topic regarding media!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

Photo Credit: https://www.ft.com/content/a52d2ac2-832b-11ea-b6e9-a94cffd1d9bf

Find Steve

Twitter: @thinkinvagabond

Website: The Thinking Vagabond

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/

In the 50th episode of the Pixel Meditations, we cover one of the greatest game that has been released for the PS4 thus far, Nier: Automata. We cover all of the amazing aspects of this game from the incredible music, gameplay, and enigmatic story – getting deep into the meaning and underlying philosophy that motivated Yoko Taro to create this masterpiece. Steve plays devil’s advocate, but we both overall agree that it is one of the greatest games to be released on the PS4. Please subscribe and enjoy the episode!

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

Join the Conversation

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @thepixelmeditationsation

Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song.  Taiwan Jon

Listener Survey: Please help us and leave us some feedback! This will only take 2 minutes.

Find Steve

Twitter: @thinkinvagabond

Website: The Thinking Vagabond

The Pixel Meditations is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://pixelmeditations.wordpress.com/