Right off the bat, the analogy and parallels in The Rings of Power, to the theology and stories in the Bible had me really excited for this show. I watched the show because I'm a Lord of the Rings fan. I didn't expect to find a great discussion between good and evil sprinkled throughout the show. There is theology in here hidden in a high fantasy story.

It must be noted that there is a lot of hate for this show online. I'm not quite sure why though. Yeah there were some head-scratching moments, but none that were enough to deter me from finishing the whole season. My wife who is not a big Lord of the Rings fan like me, actually liked it and keeps asking when Season 2 is going to come out. So there's that.

Anyway, below are some of my thoughts and notes on the pilot episode. Maybe it will sway you one way or another to give the show a chance.

A ship does not look down, but looks up to the light that guides her. It is always fighting off the darkness from the water/sea that is wanting to pull her under. ~ Finrod

This reminds me of Bishop Barron saying that bodies of water are a symbol of danger, fear or darkness in the Bible.

The ship here represents us humans. Darkness and evil, represented by water/sea, is always trying to pull us under. And so we must look up to the source of light (God) to guide us and keep us afloat.

You can take this analogy even further. While I'm not a Bible scholar, I remember a few stories that shows God's mastery over bodies of water.

• In the start of the book of Genesis, in the story of creation, you read of God “hovering above the waters” after he created Heaven and Earth.
• In the book of Exodus, you read about Moses parting the red sea with God's help.
• In the Gospel stories, you read of Jesus walking on water.

All of these examples are meant to show that God is above darkness and evil. And that is why I find that quote about the ship looking up to the light that guides her, so satisfying.

The beginning of the story in The Rings of Power, is like the beginning of the story of man in the Bible. The Elves joyfully roamed their own version of paradise, just like how Adam and Eve were free to walk alongside God in Eden. However, corruption snaked its way in and the Elves fell, just like Adam and Eve fell when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The discussion on good and evil in the pilot episode is so riveting.

Where there is love, it can never truly be dark. ~ Elrond

Since God is love, you can re-write the quote above to say, “Where there is God it can never truly be dark.” And that is such an apt analogy, because God is love, and God is light. And so where God is, darkness cannot prevail.

Tags: #TheRingsOfPower #LordOfTheRings #Theology #Christianity #TVShow

Got back my Mazdaspeed3 last Saturday. I'm glad to have it back. But I also have to say that I was so spoiled by that CX-5 turbo loaner car. It was a really good car!

Anyway, cost to repair the leak in the Mazdaspeed3 transmission was $1,071. It was actually the transmission shifting mechanism that was leaking, not the transmission itself. Thankfully it was an affordable repair bill. And that's thanks to an emergency fund set up for times like this.

So, no need to trade in my car then. Though that CX-5 turbo did make me think twice about trading in... Is still making me think twice LOL!

Started reading the Lord Of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition book. This was a much appreciated Christmas gift from my brother.

There's apparently a way to forward/send emails into OneNote. Got this idea after reading Tiago Forte's One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email, which is a great read by the way.

Here's some good parenting advice from an Instagram post on how to handle your kids when they lie to you.

Up to Episode 6 now of Vincenzo and man, what a good show! There were a couple of interesting things in Episode 6 that caught my eye, most notably the interaction between a Buddhist and Catholic character.

There's this scene where a Buddhist monk was carrying a huge wooden cross, like Jesus was on his way to crucifixion. The monk was carrying the abandoned cross to donate to a nearby church. It struck me as a beautiful scene, where people can cast aside their differences and just be kind to one another.

That scene then led to a conversation between Vincenzo and a Buddhist monk regarding enlightenment.

Vincenzo: “If I go live somewhere far away, like in the middle of the ocean, will the anger inside me disappear?”

Buddhist monk: “It doesn’t matter where you live. What matters is whether you still have the anger inside you or not.”

Vincenzo: “Does that mean that I need to achieve enlightenment?”

Buddhist monk: “The only way to get rid of your anger is by fighting it. Stand your ground and fight back. Enlightenment is what you get when you win that battle.”

Tags: #Weeknotes #Cars #Mazda #CX5 #Mazdaspeed3 #LordOfTheRings #Productivity #Parenting #TVShow #Vincenzo

As stated above, I was playing the Shadow and Flame scenario with a deck comprised of Elrond (Lore), Glorfindel (Spirit) and Legolas (Tactics); basically a tri-sphere deck with an Elven theme. In this scenario, you go up against Durin's Bane, the Balrog of Morgoth. This is the same Balrog that chased the Fellowship in Moria and that Gandalf ended up dueling with in the books.

As you can see in the photo above, Durin's Bane is a monster! It attacks for 6 damage every turn. It has a defense stat of 3 and has a whopping 27 hit points. It has Regenerate and is Indestructible. It cannot leave the staging area, but more importantly it only has a Threat value of 1. This means that as soon as the game starts, you'll have to find a way to fend off its attacks. And if I remember correctly, it starts game already in the Staging area, so there's no way to hold it off.

I mentioned above that I was using a deck with Elrond, Glorfindel and Legolas. When I designed that deck, I envisioned Elrond to be the defender, Glorfindel to be the quester and Legolas to be the attacker. As you can see in the image above, Elrond has a defense stat of 3, and he has 4 hit points. Not bad when going up against other LoTR LCG enemies, but totally lacking when facing Durin's Bane.

With an attack stat of 6, Durin's Bane will kill Glorfindel or Legolas in one attack. Elrond can fend off the attack for 1 round, but he will only have 1 hit point going into Round 2. That is not sustainable. This was not a battle I could win, which is essentially what happened. By Round 2, I conceded defeat, losing one of my heroes to Durin's Bane. Like I said in my previous post about LoTR LCG, this game is not for the faint of heart. Out of around 30 plays for this game, my win percentage is only 48%. It's a tough game.

Anyway after that loss, I've thought about how I could defend against Durin's Bane when playing the Shadow and Flame scenario. The answer I came up with is Frodo. I don't know if you can read Frodo's ability from the photo I have above, but essentially he can absorb damage from an attack and redirect it to raising the party's threat level instead. This means that I can have Frodo defend against Durin's Bane every round without him dying. It helps that in this scenario, major spoiler coming up, you start the game with a very low threat level (I think you start with a Threat Level of 1). This, plus the fact that you have (Lore) Aragorn, someone who can reset the Threat Level to what it was at the start of the game, makes me think that this deck might have a better chance at beating the Shadow and Flame scenario.

Tags: #LoTRLCG #LordOfTheRings #GameLog

Note: I'm using “board games” as a catch all for all types of board and card games.

I have a decent amount of board games that can be played solo or co-op. Lord of the Rings LCG is my favorite. It is also the one that keeps breaking my heart.

If you are not familiar with this game, it is a living card game from Fantasy Flight Games. Living Card Game is an alternative to the traditional collectible card game distribution model. Take Magic the Gathering for instance, in MTG you buy booster packs that contains random cards. In Lotr LCG, the contents of their adventure packs are known and fixed, so you don't have to buy multiple packs just to chance upon a card you really want.

Being a Lord of the Rings fan, this game is simply a must have for me and the bonus is that I can play it solo. It can be brutally hard at times though, so it might not be for casual players. Deck Building is also a requirement in this game and that can take some time. That's precisely what I did last Sunday night.

I built a deck to take on the Shadow and Flame scenario. I elected to go with a tri-sphere deck consisting of Spirit, Lore and Tactics. I'm excited to be able play Legolas again. I'm also looking forward to playing Elrond for the first time. I'm interested to see what he can do when he is equipped with his ring Vilya. Unfortunately after prepping the encounter deck, I have a feeling I will fail miserably on my first attempt at this scenario. We'll see what happens once I get to play it.

Tags: #Cardgames #LoTRLCG #LordOfTheRings