30+ Years of a Zelda Legend and Super Charged Air Racing

A Legend that Spans over 30 Years; The Legend of Zelda.

Power, Wisdom and Courage, these three energies make up the power of the Triforce, an ancient Triangular Object filled with power left behind by the three goddesses Din, Nayru and Farore in The Legend of Zelda video game series. 

Box Art Provided by GameFAQs

Debuting on February 21st back in 1986, The Legend of Zelda has been a timeless High-Fantasy, Action-Adventure game that millions have enjoyed for over 30 years. Directed and Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (Who were also in charge of Super Mario Bros at the time.) players take control of Link in a top down experience and traverse through the open world of Hyrule to retrieve the 8 pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. An even cooler bit of information is the fact that Shigeru Miyamoto actually based Link and the world of Hyrule on HIMSELF and his explorations of nearby caves, woods and fields in his home of Kyoto, Japan. With dungeons to conquer, puzzles to solve and items to collect The Legend of Zelda became an instant classic on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)/Famicom and would go on to sell 6.51 million units worldwide, pretty crazy right? 

Screenshot Provided by IGN

The Legend Of Zelda due to becoming a massive hit went on to receive countless sequels, each standing up on its own as an incredible journey and video game. I didn't grow up playing the original Legend of Zelda and my first encounter with the green tunic clad hero was through Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64. Regardless I finally experienced Zelda through The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess which features Hyrule enveloped in a Twilight realm after the arrival of the evil Twili Zant. Since then I've experienced most of the Zelda franchise through one means or the other, either remakes (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D) or virtual console downloads. 

Screenshot provided by... Oh wait, me.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess probably stands as my favorite Zelda game in the franchise. With an awesome storyline, puzzling and highly detailed dungeons, great characters and Midna Twilight Princess hasn't been toppled off my number one favorites list yet.

I'm pretty much a fan of the series in general. Owning quite a few games in the franchise the series, despite having the same similar formula down underneath, manage to add something new to the franchise in one way or another. 

My Zelda collection is definitely not massive compared to some of yours (Though I do got quite a few more as downloads) but these games are some of the best in my opinion and have given me hours of Hyrule adventuring. My family have also been pretty big Zelda fans, to the point I actually got into Zelda because of my Mum and Sister. The Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds is the most recent released game I've played, which plays similar to the original Zelda and A Link to the Past (Which this game is a sequel to.) The game did seem to end a bit sooner then I had expected but I loved the game and it's Link into the Walls mechanic.

So with most franchises sometimes there's a couple of, odd entries, aka the CD-I Zelda games.

I mean the cutscenes from this game became pretty popular via the Internet (Mostly Youtube, the good ol' 2009 days.) but they weren't really "great" games nor were they on a Nintendo console, but that's a story for another time. Oh yeah Link talked in this game too... Which was strange by itself.

The Legend of Zelda also spawned a massive timeline (Which for the long time was debated by communities online.) connecting all the games into a proper story timeline, let's just say the world of Hyrule is a little crazy and full of Chickens, crazy Gerardo men trying to talk over the world and Pots, lots of pots, mostly empty ones. 

Box Art Provided by Amazon

The Legend continues in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which seems to be taking the series in a completely new direction, removing old aspects from the original games and adding in new elements. This game releases on March the 3rd right alongside the Nintendo Switch so it's coming up pretty soon. For those wanting an open world Zelda game with a new coat of paint, an open Hyrule to do whatever they want in and a brand new story then this is probably the game for you and no, they're not delaying the game again. I want to dive deeper into the franchise and my individual games as a whole so stick around for the future. Or just play the song of time, though I'm not sure if it can take you forward in time or not, has Link ever tried that?

Super Charged Red Bull Air Racing

Over the years people have found new ways of competing against each other as sportsman, a plethora of these completions involve racing, whether it be car, horse, track or boat racing. I recently discovered a new kind of race, well not really knew it's been around since 2003, it's none other then Air Racing. Yes apparently I've not been aware of this form of racing but it caught my eye on television last Saturday. 

Logo Provided by RedBullAirRace.com

This is a logo owned by Red Bull Air Race GmbH for Red Bull Air Race World Championship.

Red Bull's Air Racing World Championships pits pilots against a-for the most part-over water obstacle course as they race for the fastest time. Planes used for this competition are high-performance aerobatic propeller planes equipped with Lycoming Engines. Speed isn't all the pilots must go far they must also achieve proficient skills and precision. If your plane touches any of the obstacles you'll lose seconds and there are certain ways of gaining speed if your technique is up to par. Other penalties are in effect such as safety lines that result in disqualifications if crossed. Competitions start off with the training round, where pilots must take at least two mandatory training sessions. A few days later the qualifying round takes place where best time absolutely counts if the pilot is to get into the round of 14. In the Round of 14 the winners and losers of the qualifying heats compete for the Round of 8 then finally the Round of 4. 

This is a thrilling sport and last Saturday's race took place in Aba Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It was quite fun to watch and after a lot of crazy flying Martin Sonka, from the Czech Republic, won the Final 4 of the Aba Dhabi championship. You can check out the full results as well as more about Air Racing at their website: http://www.redbullairrace.com/en_US

The next Air Race will be taking place here in the USA at San Diego in just 55 days. Funny what awesome sports you can discover when you're flipping channels.

Before we wrap for the day let's get a quick knitting update out there.

An Afterthought Heel Self Striping Sock Update

February 20th 2017

So it may not look like much has progressed on my sock and maybe I should be on my second sock of the pair by now but progress is there! Yes as you can see there's a couple new stripes on this sock since the last update. I'm going to be continuing this sock until I have about 5 and 3 quarters length on the foot before I start the toe. I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing the toe and heel in a separate solid or not yet, I think I am but you'll just have to wait and see. So far I'm happy with how the sock is turning out and I haven't made any new errors since that split stitch goof up from a week ago. So hopefully I'll be done with this first sock (First Sock Syndrome) soon and on to the next one.

We had a delicious Salmon and Roasted Potatoes (Potatoes crafted by yours truly.) meal yesterday. I absolutely love Salmon and it went perfect with the roasted potatoes and asparagus. (Which is back in season and tasting good.)

So one last thing, I watched Tangled (You know, the Frying Pan Princess movie.) with the family last night. 

Absolutely love this Disney animation, and I'll be discussing this movie in fuller detail this Wednesday so don't forget to come back on Wednesday for that!

That's a wrap folks!

Keep your lives entertaining!