Life in these United States

It has been easy to pick up where I left off in the US.  I am really happy about how welcoming my friends and family have been about my return.  It is almost enough to make me glad to be alive!

One of the largest cultural differences between the US and Benin that I am still readjusting to is the frenetic pace of....everything in the United States.  We are a culture driven by the clock.  We are always striving to be places on time, and we always need to find something new and productive to do if we aren't busy.  This mindset allows our society to be wealthy in terms of production and consumption, but at what cost?  Relaxation is an endangered practice.

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Onto a new topic; today's big thing is video game music.

As many of you know, I have always enjoyed a good video game; one of my favorite things to do is explore new worlds.  Naturally, the music of a game plays a critical role in determining how much the player can become immersed in the artificial environment.  Just like in a good movie, one should expect game music to enhance the feel of the external world and, ideally, project onto the audience the emotions of the story and the atmosphere of the environment.

For those of you who play games, there is a website every fan of video game music should be aware of:  http://ocremix.org/.  The overclocked remix community has been dedicated to remaking music from popular games for over 10 years now.  Their work is peer-reviewed to ensure quality, and the remixes span dozens of genres and involve hundreds of games.  Best of all, the work that is produced in free to the public!  If there is any game you love, be sure to check out the remix torrents at http://ocremix.org/torrents/  The links that start with "Overclocked Remix OCR0001" and "Overclocked Remix OCR1001" are the two archives of the collective work of the OC Remix community.  Enjoy the free music, and be sure to give credit to the community and support the artists if you appreciate the tunes!