Don't Forget Your Uppercut

Growing up in the ‘80s or ‘90s, it was a well-known fact that the “start” button paused any and all video games. However, there was one glorious exception to this rule: the uppercut in Punch-Out!

For those who never knew its exhilarations, Punch-Out! was an extremely popular boxing game on NES in which players entered the ring as Little Mac, a pint-sized runt who, through some highly unethical breach of WBA regulations, faced a series of monstrous opponents two or three times his size.

But Little Mac had two advantages: first, his determination to fight and win; and second, the human being controlling him.

Still, once the bell rings and Mac’s first opponent ambles forward, apprehension never fails to kick in. The fact is, the guys you face in this game are huge. Some of them can make mincemeat out of Mac with just a few punches. Mac’s punches, on the other hand, come off as depressingly anemic. Then again, what more could you expect from a guy who has to jump a foot in the air to reach his opponent’s chin? But this little guy is not without his trump card.

Into this daunting situation, Digital Providence has tossed a happy surprise: Mac’s signature move, the spinning uppercut. It takes a lot out of Mac, and is only possible when his confidence is up after scoring a particularly effective shot against an opponent—but when he’s able, Mac spins around, spirals into the air in a dazzling five-foot vertical leap, and drives his little fist straight into the adversary’s unsuspecting face. All this is triggered by pressing the “start” button.

This is quite literally a game-changing punch that has the power to instantly lay out some opponents. And when it’s timed right, this baby is still—in the age of ultra-HD graphics and super-intuitive game engines—still one of the most satisfying moves in all of Video-Gamedom.

So why bring it up now, other than nostalgia?

Sometimes I feel like Little Mac. You know what I mean. Up against huge problems, thinking things like, “I am way out my league here!” or “I shouldn’t even have to deal with this!” or “Why am I boxing with a mutated, 300-pound hippo-man?” Well, okay, only Little Mac has thought that last one, but we’ve all been in the ring with people or problems that seem to vastly outweigh us. And we have felt that primal fear, that deep sense of inadequacy.

It is at these moments that we need to remember the spinning uppercut. There is power, there is greatness, placed within you. Find it and claim it. Don’t be afraid to use it. Never fear greatness, because greatness is your destiny.

And there is nothing more satisfying than feeling that spinning uppercut hit its mark!

 

Confidently,

Joezilla

Random Thoughts

Once again borrowing a page from the book of Thomas Sowell, I present several "Random Thoughts." These are neither as political or as entertaining as his, but they are certainly random; their status as thoughts may be justifiably contested by the reader:

1. I was taught to examine life and learn from it, that daily experiences are not isolated events that fade into the past, but connected lessons in the School of Human Experience—which will teach us volumes if we are willing to pay attention. This perspective comes with a price. It's quite a bit like exercise: it demonstrates our limits every time. The daily challenges of life have a way of highlighting our weakness in bright colors, of pointing out what we did wrong and showing us what would have been the best action to take (hindsight is 20/20, after all). But the practice of examining life's challenges for lessons also is like exercise in this simple and striking fact: provided we don't place undue stress on ourselves, each struggle makes us stronger. And knowing that makes us thankful for trials.

2. The only man more formidable than him with nothing to lose is him with something to fight for.

3. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? (Henry David Thoreau)

That is all.

Good day!

Joezilla