Ishar: Legend Of The Fortress: Won! (With Summary And Rating)

Our hero does . . . something . . . in celebration of his victory.

          

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress

France

Silmarils (developer and publisher)

Released in 1992 for DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST

Date Started: 22 February 2020

Date Finished: 10 March 2020

Total Hours: 21

Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

 

Summary:

First of a trilogy for which Crystals of Arborea (1990) served as a prologue, Ishar offers a classic kill-the-evil warlord adventure with tile-based, first-person gameplay similar to Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder. It has excellent graphics and sound but limited RPG mechanics, including combat and spell tactics, character development, inventory, and puzzle-solving. A couple of original features include a party morale system by which party members can override the player's choice to recruit or dismiss a character and a saving system that requires the party to pay gold, but neither really plays much of a role in the end.

****

I could have gotten three more entries out of Ishar, as this final entry covers more than 15 hours. But I played it over a week-long period in which I was moving from one house to another, and something about the process made it easier to just keep playing than to stop and write. I apologize if I elide anything important in my summary below, but the good news is that a lot of Ishar's gameplay is repetitive. The constant need to replenish your supplies and find a tavern for food and sleep means that you backtrack frequently to the towns of the west while overall gameplay drives you east.
               

Approaching the titular fortress.

        

When I blogged last time, I had explored about half the game, having just crossed the bridge into the land of Silmartil. Lands further along include Kandomir, Urshurak, Vargaeon, Baldaron, Zendoria, Gil-Aras, Uldonyar, Elwingil, Halindor, Fhulgrod, and finally Valathar. That sounds like a lot of territories, but each one generally only has a couple of (respawning) monsters and a couple of encounters. The entire game world consists of four outdoor villages, two indoor cities, two dungeons, and a smattering of huts and other wilderness encounters. It spreads across the entire game what Might and Magic would have on a single 16 x 16 map.

The culmination of the game was far to the east, in the large dungeon (or, I suppose, fortress) actually called Ishar. But to survive its perils, I had to solve several sub-quests in the main game area.

When I last blogged, my party consisted of Aramir the warrior (the starting character), the monk "Unknown," Nasheer the spy, Kiriela the priestess, and Golnal the warrior. Golnal and Unknown were pretty ineffective, and redundant, so I soon replaced Golnal with a paladin named Karorn, and eventually I dumped Unknown for a wizard named Zeloran. To get around party members overriding my dismissals, I simply put the unwanted characters at the front of the party with no armor, and I let them get killed by the next enemy.
         

This is infuriating. I don't know why some NPCs do it and some don't.

        

Nasheer eventually took off while we were sleeping, so I replaced her with a third warrior named Manatar. I liked that balance, but soon afterwards I had to get rid of Manatar to accommodate a quest NPC--a spoiled princess named Deloria who had been kidnapped from her village in Baldaron. I found her in a building in Elwingil, the furthest city to the east.
           

Manatar had good stats, but he wasn't with us for long.

         

Returning her to her father rewarded the party with a vital key to Ishar, but getting her out of the party was a bit of a chore. Karorn decided he was in love with her and refused to let her go. I tried killing Karorn, but his infatuation simply transferred to Aramir, and I didn't want to kill him.
              

Oh, boy. Here we go.

          

The solution to that problem involved a potion. Potions become important in the game during the second half, and it took me a while to figure out how they work. First, you have to find an empty vial, of which there is only one in the entire game, in the dungeon in Rhudgast.
         

The manual gives you the formulas but not the effects.

        

I had previously noted that various shops sell reagents like rat's brains and salamander oil. The manual tells what proportions of these reagents you need to make various potions, but it gives them nonsense names like "Trillix" and "Bymph." What you have to do is find an alchemist named Jon the Unique in Kandomir, who gives you a scroll that translates the nonsense names into actual potion effects. (I think these might be randomized for each game as a copy protection exercise, but I'm not sure.) The manual has recipes for 15 potions, but the scroll only translates eight of them: "Physical Regeneration," "Psychic Regeneration," "Invulnerability," "Cure Blindness," "Apnea," "Disrupt Charme," "Pig Detransformation," and "Brain Wash."
         

A scroll in the game tells you which words correspond to which effects.

         

"Disrupt Charme" turned out to be the potion I wanted, but it required a unique ingredient, "turtle slobber." Fortunately, I'd managed to obtain a vial by first finding a turtle near the sea in Silmatil and then giving it to an alchemist in Zendoria. I fed the potion to Karorn, and he got over his objection to losing Deloria.
             

Where did Jarel get the key to Ishar?

           

By this time, I was so enamored with my wizard, Zeloran, that I decided to fill the empty NPC slot with another one. I found one named Khalin in Elwingil. I spent a fortune getting them both equipped with the "Lightning" spell, which damages all visible enemies on the screen and makes wizards more valuable than warriors except that psychic energy runs out faster than physical energy.
             

Blasting dwarf-bandits with "Lightning."

          

A lot of the game's magic system is wasted. It costs so much to purchase spells that even by the end of the game, each of my spellcasting characters only had three or four. There's no point wasting money on "Healing 3" when three castings of "Healing 1" do the same thing. I never explored a lot of useful-sounding spells like "Dissolve" (turns the party into a gas cloud that can blow through enemies) or "Inversion" (changes NPC alignments). Some of them seem useless--I never encountered any poison for "Cure Poison" or any invisible enemies for "Invisibility Detection" (except for one that you can't detect that way). "Radar," "Invisible Party," and "Invulnerability" aren't even described in the manual, just listed. "Regeneration," "Resurrection," and "Repulse" (sends all your enemies to hell!) could have been useful but I just never had the money. I basically had my wizards cast "Lightning" (and "Mental Shield" when it was clear it was needed) and my priest and paladin cast "Healing I," and that was it.
           

I never learned most of these spells.

          

Money is tight throughout the game. You need it for sleeping and eating--one meal and one night's rest costs over $2,000 in the eastern cities--saving ($1000 each), reagents (enough for a single potion might cost $7,000), spells, weapons and armor, and the occasional training. The shop in Elwingil sold high-level weapons and armor, and by the end of the game I was able to get my two warriors into magic armor and wielding the best swords, but no one else. I spent most of my spare gold on potion reagents because potions of "Physical Regeneration" and "Psychic Regeneration" are worth every penny if you're far from a tavern.

Meanwhile, the places that train characters in strength, agility, and intelligence (I never found one that trained constitution) seem to be there to compensate for very weak characters, not to provide regular character development to already-strong ones. Every time you try to train, there's a chance that it will go very well (increasing the attribute by 2 points), just okay (+1), or poorly (+0). I don't think I ever saw an attribute increase when it was already past 10. Thus, for most characters the only form of development is by leveling, which improves maximum health. Several of my characters hit level caps (Level 10) near the end of the game, but not everyone did.

I grinded quite a bit for my gold and still arrived at Ishar mostly broke. (Ishar itself has tens of thousands of gold pieces, but you'd have to slog them back to civilization while very near the endgame.) I decided the best way to grind was to repeatedly enter and exit the two indoor cities in Elwingil and Urshurak. Each one spawns about half a dozen orcs that leave 500 or 1000 gold pieces each. Repeatedly entering and exiting the city was a good way to build both wealth and experience.
         

By killing a large knight in Osghirod, I got a special helmet that allows you to see invisible enemies. This let me kill the invisible lizardman Brozl, who roams the huge area called Fimnuirh, and to loot from him five fire protection rings.

I spent a lot of time tracking down five rune tablets that you need for the final battle, or you can't hit Krogh. One was out in the open, on a pedestal in Lotheria. A second was in a hut in Zendoria called "The Forbidden House," so-named because my characters got cursed and slowly died of a wasting sickness after entering. I had to inoculate them with a potion before entering. Another was in the dungeon in Rhudgast. A fourth was on a pedestal in the outdoor area called Gil-Aras, but the party went blind the moment I entered the province. I had to use the "Cure Blindness" potion to see well enough to explore the small area. The fifth was in Ishar itself.
            

A rune tablet in an area that causes blindness the moment you enter.

         

In a house in Elwingil, one of Jarel's companions from Arborea, Thurm, gave the party five monks' robes that would disguise us as initiates in a certain place in Ishar.
          

Eventually, having explored everything else, I entered a teleporter in Halindor and found myself across the channel in Valathar. The entrance to Ishar is in the northeastern part of this island, but there were a few things to do first, including defeating the wizard who guarded the entrance. In the far southeast past some encounters with much tougher dwarf-bandits than I'd faced before, I found a pig standing in the middle of the forest. Since a wandering alchemist had recently given me some toad eye, a necessary ingredient for "Pig Detransformation," I figured that's what I wanted to use. I mixed the potion and applied it to the pig, and it transformed into an old woman named Morgula who offered to join my party.
             

When there's a potion called "Transform from Pig" and you find a pig, it's not hard to figure out what to do.

                       
I was reluctant to get rid of Khalin, but I figured Morgula must be special in some way since I had to go through so much trouble to get her. Sure enough, although she's weak as hell and her physical energy depletes while you watch, she has a spell called "Anti-Krogh." After I won the game and was doing my usual post-game research, I found that several web sites claim that Morgula is Krogh's mother, but I don't know where they get that, as her name appears nowhere in the backstory or in any of the NPC dialogue.
           

How do you turn down that kind of appeal?

         

It was finally time to take on Ishar. The fortress is quite large, with three separate sections separated by teleporters. There are numerous doors that you have to find keys to open, and one area that serves as the game's only real puzzle: a sequence of six levers, each controlling two doors in a small maze of corridors. You have to find the right sequence of levers to open the right doors, which I did through trial and error. There's a huge area full of poison gas that you have to mix five "Apnea" potions to successfully traverse.
          

A lever puzzle took much of the time in the final dungeon.

          

At one point, I killed a mage and looted from him an object that looks like the Silmarils logo, but I never found anything to do with it.
          

Anybody want to take a guess?

         

The final corridor features multiple encounters in succession. First, a medusa, for whom you need "Mental Shield" active for everyone to avoid petrification.
          

Why does it look like medusa is a statue? She's supposed to turn people into statues?

          

Then there's a huge red dragon. It takes a long time to kill him--and my primary fighter had to drink two "Physical Regeneration" potions during the process--but he doesn't do much damage as long as you have the gold rings from Brozl.
           

Poor dragon looks like he's cramped.

          
After the dragon was a door we had to be wearing our robes to enter . . .
            

This is the first I've heard of Krogh starting some kind of cult.

         
. . . then a corridor full of individual fights with spellcasters.
          

Killing wizards in the final corridor. I thought this was Krogh at first.

         

It all culminated with Krogh himself. He had a powerful magic attack, but it only took three castings of "Anti-Krogh" to kill him. I assumed it would be harder. I guess maybe it is if you don't take Morgula.
          

The evil Krogh. Fortunately, Morgula has a spell called "Anti-Krogh."

           

Alas, there was no real endgame. After Krogh died, the game played some triumphant music while one of my characters--Aramir, I guess--knelt in a circle of rotating pillars and held a crown above his head.
            
One element of the game that I never solved: there's a sword in a stone that was supposedly left there by Jarel when he swore off violence. Despite the message, I couldn't pull it out at any level or with the highest strength statistics.
          

Any ideas?

         

In a GIMLET, the game receives:

         

• 3 points for the game world. I like the layout, but otherwise it's a generic high-fantasy place with a generic high-fantasy quest. 1992 CRPG addicts are no longer satisfied with vaguely-described evil overlords trying to take over the world just because they're evil.

• 3 points for character creation and development. There's no creation process, just an assemblage of party members from the NPCs you find across the land. Development is quiet, almost invisible, and besides those of wizards and warriors, the game really doesn't call upon the varied skills of its other classes. 

• 4 points for NPC interaction. There are a few fixed NPCs who provide hints and items, and then there are the NPCs who can join the party. I'll allow a point for the uniqueness of Ishar's approach to alignment, where party members must vote to admit or expel new members, and apparently you can order one NPC to kill another, perhaps creating ramifications down the line (I never explored this), but none of it amounted to anything.

            

A few unnecessary hints do not constitute much in the way of "RPGs."

          

• 2 points for encounters and foes. There aren't really any non-combat encounters, and monsters are generic high-fantasy denizens with the standard types of attacks. They're not even named on-screen. I thought the respawn rate was useful.

         

Here was a powerful thing from inside the final dungeon.

         

• 2 points for magic and combat. Even if I'd bought all the spells, I don't think they really would have afforded much in the way of combat "tactics." There isn't much to do in combat but attack, cast, and keep an eye on the related meters. The party deployment grid is mostly wasted, and you can't even do the "combat waltz" or other strategies common to Dungeon Master-style games.

• 4 points for equipment. You have a reasonably good selection of weapons and armor, with numbers denoting their relative effectiveness. The potion system isn't bad except that you only have one flask.

         

This shop in Elwingil offers the best weapons and armor.

        

• 6 points for the economy. It remains relevant to the end, and I like the way that it forces you to make tough choices throughout the game. It just lacks a certain complexity that I would need for a higher score, plus perhaps more of a "money sink" in those attribute trainings.

• 2 points for a main quest with some sub-quests but no side-quests. There are no alternate endings or player choices.

• 6 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The graphics and sound are some of the best we've seen, just about perfect for the scale and nature of the game. I particularly appreciated the ambient sounds (including a murmur of voices in the taverns that I came to believe was "I'm riding down to Livermore with some recruits"). The music is suitably epic, though in my case turned off. The interface was only okay; too much mouse, too little keyboard.

• 6 points for gameplay. It has some minor nonlinearity and minor replayability (with a different party configuration). It's almost perfect in its challenge (including its enforcement of limited saving) and its length.

            

That gives us a final score of 38. That seems about right. I was thinking that it should at least cross into "recommended" territory, but in the end the game is too sophomoric in core RPG mechanics to break into the "truly good" range.
           

          

I expected the Amiga version to do quite well in European reviews (most U.S. publications, including Computer Gaming World, don't seem to have taken note of it), so I was surprised to find mostly low scores even in Amiga magazines. Scores ranged from 48 (Power Play, September 1992) to 89 (CU Amiga, July 1992). The consensus seems to be the same as mine: the graphics are great, but it lacks in RPG mechanics like combat and character development, and it doesn't have much of a plot. A few noted that with a Dungeon Master-style interface, they expected Dungeon Master-style puzzles. A paragraph from the British Amiga Action (July 1992), which gave it an 82, is representative:

           

Noticeably distinguished in the graphics area, Ishar: Legend of the Fortress plays almost as well as it looks . . . Perhaps the downfall of Ishar is its simplicity; you begin to wish for more activity, interaction, and involvement, more problems and less roaming . . . Certainly a valiant effort by Silmarils and, if they can learn from this, a firm foundation for a sequel.

           

Not everyone felt as positively as I did about the pay-to-save mechanism. My fellow blogger, Saintus, abandoned it after one session for that reason. Magazines, if they mentioned it, mentioned it negatively. In contrast, a lot is made in the magazine reviews about the party morale or alignment system in which characters form bonds, defy orders, and "have their own personalities," none of which is reflected in the game in any interesting way. I suppose Ishar did some trailblazing here, but I'll concede that an NPC "has his own personality" when he actually says something. Yes or no votes on other party members aren't quite enough.
                                             

Does this really add that much?

              
Silmarils will have plenty of opportunities to continue to improve on this system. Ishar 2: Messengers of Doom will be along in 1993 and Ishar 3: The Seven Gates of Infinity in 1994. We also might have them for Robinson's Requiem (1994) depending on my decision on the genre. After that, Silmarils changes its focus to action games and ultimately goes out of business in 2003.

Although some commenters have suggested a certain amount of "Frenchiness" to this game, I think it's safe to say that we've long-since exited the era of truly outré French titles like Mandragore (1985) and Tera: La Cité des Crânes (1986). Instead, Silmarils seems to be following early-1990s Germany by producing copies of successful American games, albeit with some of their own twists. I'll miss the bizarre nature of the 1985-1989 French "golden age," but then again there are still a few titles on my clean-up list.

I gave the choice of the next "upcoming" game to Sebastian, who designed my banner, and he opted for Lands of Lore (1993). That'll be along in a few games. Next we'll finally take a look at Planet's Edge.

The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People Part 1: Summary Of The 25Th Anniversary Edition

INTRODUCTION: WHY 7 HABITS?

This will be a long post, as I'll be summarizing Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People through the first 3 Habits. The last 4 Habits will be covered in a separate post to be more "organized".

After using self-compassion, I noticeably felt better. I recall in this past post,

that I tried reading Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but couldn't even do the first exercise due to fatigue. But now that I'm in a much better place, I decided to go through the book again.

I completed the entire book when I had way more energy in College, and really found it eye-opening and helpful. However, the lessons didn't stick, otherwise, I would've remembered and continued with these habits to this day.

These habits can be very difficult to follow as it takes a lot of due diligence, willpower to not do what you want in the moment, but to work on what you find worthy, meaningful and important.

You can feel demoralized as you continue to slide back into bad habits. You may even feel negatively towards yourself, and feeling like a failure for not being an "effective" person.

That's why it's absolutely imperative that you practice self-compassion. There are going to be many days where you'd rather sleep in and not exercise, and you may berate yourself.

However, if you're kind to yourself, you'll validate these universal feelings, indeed, animals tend to use the least amount of energy, evolutionary speaking! We try to conserve energy in the face of scarcity.

Using self-compassion, you will then say, but I'm a truly worthy person, so I'll commit to exercising after work. You can walk up and down the stairs for 10 mins, or walk around the house for 10 mins as alternative. Some movement is better than none!

Therefore, if you didn't do the one habit that would make an enormous difference in your life, with self-compassion on your side, you'll just pick yourself up and do light exercise later on in the day!

Carl Rogers noted that having unconditional positive regard is the key to change, and an important ingredient in making things work for you. 

Additionally, you must have energy. When I was exhausted, I couldn't accomplish anything. So exercise, getting a good night's sleep, eating fruits and vegetables, and so forth can help with energy.

Why follow the 7 Habits in the first place? Because of Covey's work, future self-help books base their principles on his work - namely, one book will be on empathic listening, another on synergy, and so forth.

Further, I found the book not only profound but practical, as it outlines steps that can help you reach your goals, in a principled manner. Covey gives you exercises to act on these positive habits.

Through these exercises, you will find what you value, not what society, family and friends say you should be. Then, the book helps you to live in line with your own truths, again in a principled way.

Again, do these habits with self-compassion, recognizing that it's very hard work. Even Covey mentioned that it's difficult in his Foreword to the 2004 edition. He writes, "I have personally found living the 7 Habits a constant struggle...Because I sincerely work and struggle every day at living these principle-embodied habits, I warmly join you in this adventure" (p. 20). And this is the man who wrote the book!

Because of self-compassion and seeing ourselves as worthy, we want to live with integrity and principle. After all, we don't treat our precious things with contempt and carelessness, but rather with care. Likewise, when we value ourselves, we want to take care of ourselves, we want to be happy and pursue purpose and meaning in our lives, in a principled way.

I'm summarizing the 7 Habits as I find it's in sore need of an update for people of diverse backgrounds. It appears that Covey is writing to the upper white middle class families. Even so, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water", but rather focus on the principles of what Covey is expounding.

FOREWARD TO THE 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION

In this Foreword, Covey acknowledges that our problems and pain are universal, and solutions will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles. 

These principled solutions stand in contrast to common thinking of modern society as outlined below.

BODY:
Cultural tendency: continue with unhealthy lifestyle habits; treat health problems with surgery and medication.

Principle: prevent diseases and problems by incorporating healthy life choices. Such as the tried and true sleep hygiene, eating healthy, exercising, meditation, preventive medical checkups, and so forth.

MIND:
Cultural tendency: watch television, "entertain me"

Principle: read broadly and deeply, continuous education

HEART:
Cultural tendency: use relationships with others to advance your personal, selfish interests

Principle: deep, respectful listening, helping and serving others brings greatest fulfillment and joy.

I found the above compelling because when people think about being an "effective" person, they think you need to manipulate and use others to get ahead of the game, seek and gain power and money to abuse others to get what you want and need.

This book proposes the exact opposite, that by following principles of honor and integrity to the best of your abilities, it can help solve painful problems, bringing you joy and contentment, as it aligns with universal truths.

Instead of using and abusing others, Covey calls for having utmost respect, listening and understanding others deeply, without judgment. By doing this, you move toward empowering not just the person, but yourself.

INSIDE-OUT AND OVERVIEW

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People focuses on Character Ethic as a way to be an effective person. You must start first with your self, with your paradigms, your character and your motives.

For Covey, Character Ethic is the foundation of success - you can only experience enduring happiness when you integrate these principles.

The major principles are:

• Fairness
• Integrity and Honesty
• Human Dignity
• Service
• Quality or Excellence
• Potential/Growth
• Patience, Nurturance and Encouragement

By following these principles, you're following the correct roadmap. You may falter, but you can always consult the map and find your way back - there's always opportunities to do so to exercise these principles!

Following is a great description of a person who fell off the map and got lost, not using principles as a guide post, in the words of Erich Fromm:

Today, we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be, whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain. Two statements may be said concerning this individual. One is that he suffers from defects of spontaneity and individuality which may seem to be incurable. At the same time, it may be said of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this earth.

I appreciate this quote, because this is what we all go through, and suffer, being a universal condition. However, we can change course by steering ourselves toward universal principles.

Do these principles make sense? They do, if we look at the negative of these timeless principles.

Being unfair, judgmental, deceptive, manipulative, not wanting to "git gud" (gamer terminology), being nasty and impatient to others - this doesn't lead to success in the truest sense.

Malignant narcissists, who have those negative qualities, can be extremely successful financially, often ending up as CEOs. Because they'd do anything to get ahead, they can cut corners and make quick gains, pushing their way to the glass ceiling. But they're very miserable, having no meaningful, loving relationships or connections with anyone.

Please be advised that human beings and all mammals are hard-wired to have connection with one another. We're social animals. When we're cut off or don't have a sense of belonging, that brings about true suffering.

But being fair, open, honest, improving upon yourself, encouraging and helping others - these things make people happy and able to connect with others in a fulfilling way.

Some of the negative habits to combat:

• procrastination
• impatience
• criticalness
• selfishness

Procrastination definitely makes you less effective. What's interesting is that the last 3 negative habits lead to disconnect from others. What this book is steering us toward is to have positive connections with others to be successful.

The book explains how you can achieve principled habits, but of course, have self-compassion if you go back to bad habits. Covey admits that having good habits involve tremendous process and commitment.

Covey notes that habits are the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire:

Knowledge is the theory and paradigms of what to do.

Skill is how to do it.

Desire is you want to do it.

The 7 Habits are incremental and integrated approach to developing personal and interpersonal effectiveness. As you go through the habits, you move from dependence to independence, and finally to interdependence.

When we reach interdependence, we can combine our talents and abilities and create something greater together, compared to independently, achieving more success and becoming more effective together. Two heads are better than one.

When you share yourself deeply, meaningfully with others, you may have access to the vast resources and potential of other human beings.

Habits 1 to 3 help you move from dependence to independence. This is your Private Victory.

Habits 4 to 7 help you move from independence to interdependence. This is your Public Victory.

Although you need to achieve independence before you gain interdependence - you have to learn how to crawl before you walk - it may take many years, even a lifetime to "master" habits 1 to 3. However, you can also work on habits 4 to 7 concurrently!

HABIT 1 - BE PRO-ACTIVE

Being proactive means that you take responsibility for your own life. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.

Reactive people are often effected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If the weather is bad, they feel bad.

However, a proactive person carries their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shine, doesn't matter, because proactive people are value driven, and their value is to produce good quality work, being kind to others, and so forth, regardless of what's going on.

Covey mentions the proactivity of Victor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, who founded Logotherapy, and author of Man's Search For Meaning, which I wrote about here.

Despite the atrocities, Frankl chose how he acts, and found meaning in the suffering, and helped others to find their own meaning.

We all can't be Frankl. Indeed, if one of my hair strands is out of place, I feel that I can't stream as well. However, we can start slowly and have minor victories when we act positively rather than reacting. 

Suppose it's raining outside, and as a result your arthritis is really acting up. You can chose to stay at home and be in pain and miserable. Or you can have compassion and acknowledge your pain. Then you may problem-solve, give a middle finger to the crappy weather, and go out with your friends. 

Covey uses the model of circle of influence - those are the things you have control over, such as being patient, kind and understanding. Around the circle of influence, you have circle of concern, which you don't have control over such as the weather, politics and such. 

When you're proactive, you use your energy in working on your circle of influence, instead of reacting negatively to things you can't control, and then blaming others for your problems.

You have direct control by working on your habits, such as the Private Victories of Habits 1, 2, 3. Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence - Public Victories of Habits 4, 5, 6. No control problems can be dealt with accepting the way things are, even though we don't like it.

Here's an example on how you can expand your circle of influence, by working on yourself and how you respond.

Your boss tends to be critical of others, but doesn't have a verifiable DSM-V personality disorder, so you can work with her. Instead of complaining about yet another mistake she pointed out, you start trying to understand her and what she's looking for. 

Instead of avoiding her at all costs, or just saying "yes" to whatever she says to "get her off my back", you instead truly listen to what she wants and expects. Actually, she may be taken aback if she sees you actively searching out her advice when you have a question about the project, since she notices that people avoid her like the plague.

Because you truly understand what her vision is and you're able to implement it as a result, she will be impressed, and come to you for more of the "plum" projects.

You're clearly proactive in this situation. Instead of blaming her for being "bitchy" and saying, "if only she were more understanding, my work would be better", you decide to understand exactly what she wants, getting all the specifics so you can easily implement.

However, your other coworkers start getting jealous, one actually calls you a "brown noser" to your face. Instead of reacting, you have the wherewithal to tell him that you're not brown nosing, you're just following these particular steps that she finds useful and that's how you can "get ahead". By giving him these valuable tips, he can take it or leave it.

If he's "not convinced", you continue to make positive overtures toward him. Seeing that you're actually genuine and authentic, he starts using your tips, noticing that they actually work, and you gained an ally. 

The other coworkers eventually follow suit. You turned an unpleasant work experience into a positive one.

Now the issue here is if your boss actually has a verifiable personality disorder. She completely belittles and insults others, lies about her employees to cover herself, fires employees indiscriminately, and creates a truly toxic environment. 

You have a family to feed, so you can't quit your job, even though your wife and children are begging you to leave for your health.

However, even in this dire situation, you can be proactive. Take notes whenever she says something demeaning to you or another person. Make sure you write down the exact day and time this occurs. If you have good reflexes, you can also record the toxicity on your smartphone.

On the weekends, you and your wife scour the internet for job opportunities. If you get fired, you can hire a lawyer, armed with scores of exceptionally detailed notes, which is every lawyer's wet dream for a lawsuit.

If you manage to not get fired, once you find another job, you can put in your 2 weeks notice.

How can you tell if you're proactive or not? If you're reactive you use "have" statements. If you're proactive, you use "be" statements.

Reactive statements examples:

• I'll be happy when I have my house paid off...
• If only had a boss who wasn't such a dictator (use the techniques above instead)...
• If I had more obedient kids...
• If I had my degree...
• If I could just have more time to myself...

Proactive statements examples:

• I can be more patient
• I can be more wise
• I can be more understanding
• I can be more resourceful
• I can be more diligent

The Application Suggestions are:

1. For a full day, listen to your language and to the language of the people around you. How often do you use and hear reactive phrases such as "If only," "I can't", or "I have to".
2. Identify an experience that have behaved reactively. How could you respond proactively. Create this experience vividly in you mind, picturing yourself responding in a proactive manner. 
3. Select a problem from work or personal life that is frustrating to you. Determine whether it's direct, indirect, or no control problem. Identify the first step you can take in your Circle of Influence to solve it and then take that step.
4. Try the 30-day test of proactivity. Be aware of the change in your Circle of Influence.

HABIT 2: BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

The following exercise will help define what you find truly valuable in your life.

Imagine yourself at a funeral, the whole procession. What would you want your loved ones (family and friends) and coworkers to say about you during your eulogy?

Those will be your values and what you consider important.

When I tried that exercise, I wanted people to say some positive things that I'm not. One is "she's someone who honors commitments" but I tend to cancel social engagements.

Therefore, through this funeral exercise, I know I need to work on only making promises that I can truly keep and really following through, as one of my core principles.

The other interesting thing is that nowhere in the eulogy did I want someone to say that "she valued her freedom" because that sounds "bad". However, when I really looked deep into myself, choosing only three things I value most, they are: 

1. Freedom
2. Love
3. Growth

The last two showed up in the eulogy, but my most valued, Freedom, did not. Even so, I find that I can't be authentic if I don't have freedom.

Therefore, do the eulogy, which is crucial, but in a separate list, find three things that make you happy.

A lot of us, in the happiness list, would put down being wealthy. As studies show, materialism doesn't lead to happiness, so being wealthy isn't your value.

Instead, write down why you want to be wealthy. What comes up mostly is you want money so you can travel, eat amazing foods, go to concerts and experience other unique activities and events.

Therefore, I would say that you value rich experiences, and that could be something you can work toward. 

It's important to come up with your unique mission statement. It will change as you consider things more, as you get older, as you go through different milestones in life, and such. But at least you have a blue print as to what you're aiming for.

Do the funeral exercise - it can be rather eye-opening to see where your values really lie.

Next, with this "End in Mind", you want to focus on what you want to be (character), and to do (contributions and achievements), and put that in your life mission statement.

Since this funeral exercise is so open-ended, as well as mission statements being equally open-ended, and I struggle in pinning things down, the Franklin Covey mission statement builder was quite helpful. 

I would do the funeral exercise, and then the mission statement builder.

Once armed with this knowledge, you have your own blueprint as to how you want to live your life, not how others perceive you.

You want to make sure that you follow your vision and values, which is your Circle of Influence, and the more you work, the more your Circle of Influence expands. That's where you want to focus your attention on.

You want a Principled Center. By focusing our lives on correct principles, we create a solid foundation, that doesn't fluctuate based on people or things that constantly change, and are quite fickle. 

Alternative Centers

Covey next lists alternative centers that we tend to have, rather than a Principled Center. These are spouse, family, money, work, possession, pleasure, friend/enemy, church/institution and self-centeredness.

Let's take work-centeredness as an example of why not having a Principled Center is problematic. When you're work-centered, your personal worth is determined by your occupation. You're only comfortable when you're working. You make your decisions based on the needs and expectations of work. You tend to be limited by your work role. You see your work as your life. 

The other alternative centers are equally problematic. But having a principled center, you aren't being acted upon by other people or circumstances, rather you make your decision based on looking at the whole picture, factoring in work, family and other needs to come up with the best solution.

Covey gives a good example of an alternative center versus principled center approach. Your husband was looking forward to this concert for the past month or so. But at the night of the concert, your employer calls you to do some prep work for tomorrow's 9 AM meeting.

If you're spouse-centered, you go to the concert with your husband. Or you may feel you have to work instead, but very anxious about his response, justifying your decision and protecting yourself from his disappointment,

If you're money-centered, you'd call your husband to cancel the concert b/c this could lead to a potential raise. 

Covey goes down the other alternative-centered options which we won't outline here, but the principled-centered option makes the most sense.

A possible outcome using the principle-centered approach is to communicate to your husband and boss, whom you both have a strong connection. You genuinely want to prepare for this meeting because you value your boss's effectiveness and you want to contribute to the team (proactive) rather than staying at work to get the edge on someone else (reactive).

You want to go to the concert with your husband because you both were committed to this for the past month or so, and this is your husband's favorite band growing up. 

You chose what is ultimately most valuable to you in your mission statement, which happens to be your relationship with your husband, when you did your eulogy.

Therefore, you tell your boss that you'll come in early in the morning to prepare for the meeting because you care about the welfare of the team, and go to the concert with hubby.

Application suggestions:

1. Record funeral impressions.
2. Write down your roles.
3. Begin work on your personal statement, this tool can help.
4. Circle all the alternate centers that you tend to follow
5. Start a collection of notes, quotes and ideas you may want to use as resource material for your mission statement
6. Identify a project you'll face, and envision how to solve this using a principled center approach.
7. Share the principles of Habit 2 to loved ones and/or work group, and suggest that together, being the process of a family and/or group mission statement.

HABIT 3: PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST

The answers to these questions will direct you during Habit 3.

Question 1: What one thing could you do (something you aren't doing now) that, if you did it regularly, would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal life?

Question 2: What one thing in your business or professional life would bring similar results?

For the first question, I came up with 3: going to bed and getting up at the same time, exercising, and eating more fruits and vegetables. For the second question, being more organized by using to-do lists.

Covey poses that Habit 3 is the practical fulfillment of Habits 1 and 2.

Habit 1 says, "You're in charge". It challenges you to realize, "that's an unhealthy program I've been given from my childhood, from my social mirror. I don't like that wrong script, I can change it".

Habit 2 shows us what's most important to us.

Habit 3 is the exercise that you do to become principle-centered, and how you carry out what's most important to you. Covey describes a time management matrix.

Quadrant 1 are important and urgent such as crises, pressing problems, deadlines.

Quadrant 2 is important but not urgent.

Quadrant 3 are non-important but urgent such as interruptions, some calls, some mail, some meetings.

Quadrant 4 are not important and not urgent such as trivia, time-wasters.

Write down all of your roles, such as personal, parent, spouse, employee and for each one, write down the essentials such for each of these roles - that will most likely be Quadrant 1, 2 and 3 concerns. Exercise would fall under your personal role, Quadrant 2.

If you, like most families, work multiple jobs, and you find that you don't have time to have dinner with your children (I would say this is a very basic Quadrant 2 issue), look again at your roles list. Delegate any Quadrant 3. 

If still pinched for time, look at your roles again, weeding out the unimportant positions. If you see one as being PTA member, then I'd quit, since your values are with your children (Habit 2).

If work is getting in the way, then cut unnecessary expenses to reduce work hours. I often see families struggling to make ends meet (leading to multiple jobs). Come to find out I see their children (as young as 5-years old) with the latest, largest iPhone ($1,500), when all they really need is clamshell for emergencies ($30). 

In other words, resist the urge to keep up with the Joneses. It's not worth working multiple jobs for all these unnecessary luxury items.

Here's an example that often comes up:

A mother brings in her daughter ("Jill") as she's severely depressed. Jill is concerned about her mother because she works too many hours, and her health is declining as a result. Further, they can't spend time together, which Jill says also makes her depressed. She spends her time alone in her room while her mother works. If that's not depressing, I don't know what is.

It was obvious that their relationship is their most-valued principle (Habit 2), so Quadrant II is working on their relationship.

When I asked the mother why she's working full-time and then Uber after work and on weekends, she reports that she has to pay bills (Quadrant 1 Urgent) and buy things for Jill to make her happy (allegedly Quadrant 2).

Jill then mentions that she doesn't even want these things, which include the mother paying for Jill and her friends to go out to eat, hair extensions, fancy manicures, smartphones, and so forth. We calculated that it comes to $1000/month. Uber = $8/hr, so that's 31.5 hours/week.

Since Jill convinced the mother that she'd rather spend the time with her, foregoing the luxuries, the mother agreed to quit Uber altogether and keep the full-time job. 

Jill went even further and agreed to do almost all the chores (Quadrant III), so that they both can spend even more time together, which is their Quadrant II, most important values.

I saw them 2 weeks later and Jill was beaming with joy - so not only did her depression go away completely, but she's very happy having all these special moments with her mother.

In other words, cut out the crap and focus on what's meaningful to you.

Click here for Part II - Public Victories.

The How of Happiness Review

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Movie Reviews: A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Christopher Robin, Eighth Grade, First Man

See all of my movie reviews.

A Star is Born (2018) - Bradley Cooper directs, writes, and stars in this third (at least) remake of the 1937 story. He is joined by the captivating and talented Lady Gaga. I assume you know the story, so here be general spoilers.

The original story is about a talented man whose best days are behind him. He is on the way out, but he finds and starts the career of the young woman. They fall in love. He is depressed, not only because he is no longer wanted, and is an alcoholic, but because he can't take the idea of a youngster and a woman besting him. Meanwhile, out of love - or maybe out of what is expected of a woman - she is on the verge of giving up her career because she thinks she can save him if they live a normal life. He overhears this and decides to end his life, either because he has finally reached bottom or so as not to allow her to give up her dreams for him.

This remake downplays the parts that make it seem like it is natural for her to give up her stardom for his sake. He has a drug and alcohol problem. She doesn't consider giving up her career, although she makes an attempt to get him booked on her tour, threatening to not do her tour if he is not allowed to join her. Her manager is a creep who flat out tells him that he is in her way, which leads him to end his life; this is far more sinister than having him overhear a conversation he should not have heard.

This is a pretty good movie, with good original music. Everyone gives a solid performance, and most of the camera work and directing is excellent (I had one or two minor quibbles, nothing major). The leads have good chemistry, and Lady Gaga's singing can blow you away; I suppose some will complain that no one can sing like Barbra Streisand in the second remake from 1976, but that movie wasn't as good as this one.

It is emotionally draining, however, if you have a hard time watching someone resort to suicide (not graphic, but the scene is long) or a woman having to deal with a lover who is an alcoholic and drug addict. Just so you know.

Bohemian Rhapsody - A biopic of Freddie Mercury of Queen, and also the story of Queen, from its founding until Live Aid. The main plot elements are Freddie vs his girlfriend Mary (as he comes to realize he is gay), Freddie vs his manager, Freddy vs some boyfriends and the swinging 80's lifestyle, Freddy vs his family and his traditional background, Freddy vs his contracting AIDS (only superficially covered), and Freddy vs his band-mates.

If you love Queens's music, of course you will love the movie. If you hate Queen's music ... what's wrong with you? Some of their songs, like We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions, seem like they were chiseled out of music itself. On its own merits, Rami Malek does a great job as Freddy, and Lucy Boynton as Mary and Gwilym Lee as Brian May also shine, as does the rest of the cast. The plot is captivating, since Freddy seems equal parts genius arranger and singer, but also self-destructive and helpless. Mary, if you believe the movie, is the one who drags him back into sanity, even while she is kept apart from him due to his sexuality.

As an ending to the movie, Live Aid, while a lovely concert, doesn't really answer all of the questions. If you know the real story, you know that a lot of the early days are skipped over or compressed (they went through a bunch of bass guitarists and their first album was not a great success), Live Aid was a phenomenal triumph, and the story continues to the early 90's. So threads are left dangling.

But it doesn't matter. Good performances and great music, an interesting portrait of a tormented genius. Not the best movie ever made, but worth watching.

Christopher Robin - Ewan McGregor plays a grown up Christopher Robin, famous son of A. A. Milne, who works as an efficiency expert in London and who is tasked with firing a bunch of people unless he can figure out a way to save their jobs. He runs into Pooh Bear who needs Christopher Robin to help him find more honey in the 100 acre woods. CR tries to make sense of this, and they go on several adventures. Everyone learns something by the end of the movie.

The closest analogy here would be Hook (Robin Williams). It's an okay movie, though rather childish and cliche. Kids will probably enjoy it. I got a bit bored.

It's a little odd to see this movie after last' year's Goodbye Christopher Robin, which painted a rather grimmer picture of CR's relationship to his father's stories.

Eighth Grade - A good but intense look at a high school girl (Elsie Fisher) who spends all of her time, and tries to find all of her validation, on social media. Her real life, unfortunately, doesn't conform to her expectations from her virtual one. Not only does she have low self-esteem and low popularity and fall for the wrong boy, she also runs head on into a few moments of real danger and harassment that up the significance of what happens in real life.

Josh Hamilton plays her single father, desperately trying to help and support her while she fights to keep him out. It's not an easy movie to watch, but it's a fairly good one.

First Man - A biopic of Neil Armstrong, and also the story of the mission to land a man on the moon. Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, in which the focus on one character made the story interesting, I wan't as happy here. Neil has a few problems with his wife and kids, but not really; I'm pretty sure most of the problems were invented by the screenwriters. The conflict with his wife was not believably portrayed. Meanwhile, all the parts about the moon landing were fascinating, but they were not the main focus of the movie.

The movie makes several other mistakes. Instead of a grand story of triumphs and tragedies (i/e, what really happened), the story concentrates solely on a series of tragedies (real ones). I guess that's the screenwriter's way of ratcheting up the tension, but it a) makes the story very narrow and small, making it more like a Marvel movie than a real story, and b) it makes it unrealistic: why would anyone continue with a program that fails so tragically and continuously over and over, killing people each time? Of course, that wasn't the real or entire story. But we don't get to hear the real or entire story.

The worst parts for me were a) the long sequences of shaking cameras that simulated the shaking rockets and flights. One such sequence of reasonable length in a movie is great. This movie does this at least three times, for 20 minutes each time. At some point it moves from being a good simulation to being distracting and unwatchable. Enough already. 2) About sixty percent of the movie is a closeup of someone's face. This is the same mistake used in Jackie. Again: a few face closeups are great but 60% of the screen-time spent on face closeups is not, It's just pretentious, distancing, and annoying. Which is a crying shame, because the cinematography of the other 40% is beautiful.

Aside from all that was bad about the movie, the movie did everything else  well: well acted, well scored, well paced, and an important piece of history. For what its worth, my fellow movie-goers (friends) liked the movie.

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That And Voila!

The upcoming game cries out for some emigre units. After consulting various books, my choice of homecast bits, and my future plans, I decided to cobble together an imaginary unit which will be able to find a home in various  settings.

The Regiment de Brouiller

The bodies are slightly modified Meisterzinn ones with my original round hat heads, with crest filled out with epoxy putty. The coat has the general look of the Austrian style cut worn by several Emigre units in Flanders but with white turnbacks and a minimum of lace which can serve in other campaigns.

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Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2* (*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz

Memory: 4GB

Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)

Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible

HDD Space: 65GB

Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1

Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)

Memory: 8GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB

Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible

HDD Space: 65GB

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