The Vanishing Blog

Film Anticipation 2012

2012-01-20T15:26:00.000-06:00

5. The Avengers
Dir. Joss Whedon | Superhero | May 4

As a nerd it is my obligation to be excited about anything Joss Whedon touches, right? And further, as a nerd, I should be barking like a sealion in anticipation of anything that brings four major Marvel superheroes together in a single movie, right?

Wrong. I'm not that sort of nerd.

My relationship with the Marvel Studios films has been mixed. Iron Man? Okay. Robert Downey Jr. is a lot of fun to watch. Hulk? Do. Not. Care. Thor? Surprisingly fun and less over-the-top ridiculous than I expected. Captain America? A good, competent film, but one that made a few story decisions which decreased my enjoyment a lot.

So why is this on the list? Because it's either going to be a whole lot of fun or a completely and utter disaster. Either one will be a fun. Either way, this is going to be a crazy movie.

My first reaction was "that's a terrible idea! How are they ever going to pull that off?" But, y'know, I've been surprised enough lately that I'm willing to give The Avengers the benefit of the doubt. Plus with Whedon not only directing but also writing the thing, at least there will be good character moments. In the end that's the best we can hope for because - hey - let's not kid ourselves, the plot's not going to be surprising. I predict it will involve them saving the world. YIKES! SPOILER!

4. The Amazing Spider-Man
Dir. Marc Webb | Superhero | July 3

Oh, the Spider-man reboot! Yes, this is on the list.

I wasn't the least bit excited about this until I saw The Social Network which featured new Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield. That gave me a bit of hope.

I liked director Marc Webb's debut (500) Days of Summer, although genre-wise pseduo-romantic-comedy-drama is pretty far from superhero. I have my doubts about whether Webb can do action.

Judging by the trailer, this could be a laughably pretentious take on Spider-man... or just an overblown trailer. I hope it's the latter because a "darker" more "brooding" take on Spider-man sounds like the last thing I'd want to see. Sami Raimi played "emo" Peter for laughs and everybody hated it (except for me, I love that bit).

Also, what's the deal with the "untold story"? I'm pretty sure most people know the origin of Spider-man. Radioactive spider bite. Uncle Ben dies. So what's going to be so different about this one?

Finally, I have to gripe about the first-person bit from the trailer mostly because everybody else thought that was great and I hated it. I sure hope not a lot of that ends up in the film. First of all, platforming in first-person doesn't work. That's why Spider-man video games are in third-person. First person can easily be dizzying and disorienting. Second, if you are going to show first-person stuff to give us a sense of Spider-man's webslinging flights, use it sparingly. Do it while he's swinging and not while he's running across roves. They were just showing off with that stupidly long shot in the trailer. And third, it looked super, super fake to me. It's certainly better than the GCI in the original Spider-man which we all make fun of now, but this is 11 years later. I shouldn't be looking at those effects and thinking it's a video game.

Basically, The Amazing Spider-man is on this list for the same reason that The Avengers is. It'll either be a good movie or a hilariously bad flop. Either way = entertainment. To be honest, I have no prediction how this one'll turn out other though I think it has a better shot at being a good movie than The Avengers does.

But I will say this: having no J. Jonah Jameson means it's going to be at least 30% less funny from the get-go.

3. Prometheus
Dir. Ridley Scott | Science Fiction | June 8

I am no fan of Ridley Scott. Gladiator? Overrated. Blade Runner? Overrated and boring. Alien? Hey, I kinda like that one.

Much as I dislike the typically slow, plodding pace of Scott's films, I do enjoy a little breathing room in my sci fi my favourite being 2001: A Space Odyssey (yes, I actually like it, I don't just say that.) But, basically, I'm a sucker for space movies and it seems like there aren't a whole lot of them made anymore. Since Star Trek 2 is taking an eternity, this film, billed as a spiritual prequel to Alien (though not actually connected with that series), caught my eye.

It's plot, little as we know right now, sounds fairly high-concept. The crew of the titular ship Prometheus search for clues to the origins of humanity and there's some sort of advanced alien race or the ruins of one involved. Good enough. Better still: there's an excellent cast including Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, and Guy Pearce.

Also, the music in this trailer's pretty cool.

2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Dir. Peter Jackson | Fantasy | December 14

After years of legal wrangling between studios and filmmakers, a change of director, and a change of mind on the two-film deal, we are finally getting The Hobbit... part 1. There's a lot to be excited about with the return of the filmmaking crew, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum and the excellent new casting choice of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.

Even after all this anticipation, it doesn't make the number 1 spot and here's why: a lot of the film is a known quantity. We know what Peter Jackson's Middle-earth looks like. We know Rivendell, the Misty Mountains, the Shire, even the trolls have already been glimpsed in the trilogy. We know the story from the book (those of us who've read it). And we know that this film is only half the story.

Most of the really exciting stuff - the stuff we haven't seen before like Mirkwood, the wood elves, Laketown, the Battle of the Five Armies, and, of course, Smaug the dragon are in the second half of the story. To be honest, although I'm definitely going to see this movie and I have a pretty high degree of confidence that it'll be great... I'm not actually that excited about it.

Having said that, it's a whole year away and there's lots of time for me to get more excited as I'm sure I will. Now part 2? That I really wanna see!

1. The Dark Knight Rises
Dir. Christopher Nolan | Superhero | July 20

Is there really any surprise? No. There is no other choice for most anticipated film this year.

The Nolan Batman film series has the potential to be one of the greatest film trilogies. Heck, with a strong enough third movie I'd say it could even be the best. Certainly it looks like it's going to have a good shot.

Based on all I know of the film (I've been following the major news and I've seen the early preview of the opening 6 minutes of the movie) it looks like Nolan's bringing us around full circle thematically.

In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne sets out to become an ideal and a symbol to fight the criminals of Gotham. As Ra's al Ghuld points out, if he devotes himself to an ideal he can transcend human limitation and can become more than a mere man. He can become a legend. In The Dark Knight, Batman's resolve is tested by the Joker and the Joker's corruption of Harvey Dent, the man he hopes might replace Batman.

Now we have The Dark Knight Rises, a title which has grown on me considerably since its reveal. Our villain is Bane most famous in the comics for having broken Batman - literally. If the poster is any indication, it looks like something similar could happen here. There's been rampant speculation that Bruce Wayne could die. Perhaps that would be the ending? Batman's death inspires others to take up his mantle (perhaps Catwoman and/or Joseph Gordon-Levitt's yet unnamed cop character?) and enshrines him as a legend in Gotham City history. Sounds like a winning plot to me.

We'll just have to wait until July 20th to see how Nolan ends the legend. For now we've just got to be satisfied with this awesome trailer.

Game Anticipation 2012 & 2011 Retrospective

2012-01-12T15:34:00.000-06:00

Last year I did a list of my Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of the year. This year, there look to be more exciting games on the horizon though not quite as many for me so I've truncated this year's list to a Top 5. First a look back.

2011 Games in Review

It's funny looking back at last year's list. Some titles turned out more exciting than I thought others less so.

Early in the year Bioware had the closest thing they've ever had to a flop in Dragon Age II. I didn't even end up playing the game. I was bored by the demo. Yeah, that's a good sign. Heavily criticized for it's more linear and generally less epic story, hopefully this was just a fluke because I'm still expecting great things from Bioware (but we'll get to that.)

At the other end of the year, Bioware did manage to release Star Wars: The Old Republic, its first MMORPG and it seems to be doing pretty well. I am only interested in the game passively as someone generally interested in the state of the gaming industry (and wondering if anyone can dethrone those smug guys at Blizzard from their World of Warcraft perch high atop a mound of cash). Reports from friends and acquaintances who've played the game seem very positive, but I'm still not buying something that'll cost me $60 up front, $15 a month after that, and gradually suck my life and savings away. Still sounds like drugs to me.

In April we got Portal 2 which I hardly need to comment on as both myself and Joshua have both previously talked about how awesome that turned out. What turned out less well was my 1# most anticipated pick, Crysis 2. I'm still kinda sore about that. The game had so much promise and while it definitely has its moments... well I just shake my head at the game's mention. Again, I've already talked about that.

Also filed under "Games, Extremely Disappointing Ones," are two shooters from old developers. Duke Nukem Forever, much to the astonishment of everyone in the known universe, did actually come out as scheduled. And it sucked. Is there really any surprise about that in hindsight? Like The Old Republic I was only interested in this game for its prominent status in the gaming subculture and not in the franchise or actually playing the game. As it turned out to be a perverse, unsightly mess, it did not change that initial outlook and I did not play the game though I certainly got a good laugh over how pathetic it turned out to be.

Rage, the other disappointing shooter in question, was far less funny and far more baffling. How legendary Doom developer id Software managed to turn out such a lackluster game after so much hype is... well, actually that's kind of reminiscent of Doom 3, isn't it? 'cept that game sold because it was from a franchise. Guess id's probably going back the their cash cow next.

A couple of games were ranked criminally low on my list in hindsight. The subtitled "sky" games as I like to call them turned out to excite me much more than I was anticipating. Both The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim have thus far been fantastic. For all my skepticism of motion controls (particularly the Wii's) the latest Zelda title has convinced me that motion controls can not only work in some instances, but actually serve to make the game more fun. I'm looking forward to playing more.

It's a wonder to me looking back how I wasn't more excited for Skyrim. Although the game certainly has its flaws and drawbacks, I do not want the games industry to stop making games like this: games with immense freedom, immersion, player choice, and value. But this will probably receive its own review at some point.

Finally, Batman: Arkham City was ranked just about right. I just finished the game and I have to say it's mostly an improvement over Asylum. This will also receive its own review.

Now onto anticipation!

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games of 2012

5. Bioshock Infinite

2007's Bioshock is far from my favourite game. I found it a bit of a chore to play at times, actually. I also didn't find the system of switching from plasmid powers to guns very fluid. I just never got into the gameplay. What did suck me in (along with almost everyone else who played it) was the story and presentation. That was absolutely fantastic... except for the last fourth of the game or so.

With all those gripes it may be a wonder that I've chosen Infinite for this list. Here's the thing: I believe in developer Irrational Games' potential. Instead of the underwater city of Rapture, we now have a sky-bourne city called Columbia. We also have a speaking protagonist (imagine that!) as well as an interesting companion character with weird space-time fabric ripping powers... or something like that. Looks really interesting. Hopefully there's a great story like last time (and better gameplay) to go along with what looks to be a beautiful and unique setting.

4. Metro: Last Light

Metro 2033 was a surprisingly good game for most who picked up and played it. The post-apocalyptic shooter was set mostly in the Moscow Metro system with sections of the game taking place on the surface. It had a unique feel due to Ukrainian developer 4A Games and the fact that its story and setting were adapted from a novel of the same title. Last Light picks up after one of the two possible endings to the first game.

One of the most fun parts of 2033 was sneaking around enemy metro stations shooting out lights, sneaking up on guards and generally being a sneaky Russian ninja. Last Light looks like it's going to focus more on human-vs-human combat which was my favorite part of the first game.

3. Far Cry 3

During my E3 2011 coverage I highlighted this game as one to watch. Certainly the demos look promising. Far Cry 2 was a flawed game, but quite a bit of fun when you got past some of those flaws. If this game hones the story and the missions while still allowing for lots of freedom and choice along with a huge variety of weapons... well, sign me up!

2. Mass Effect 3

On my list for the second year running on account of being delayed is Bioware's Mass Effect 3, the (hopefully) epic conclusion of Commander Shepard's story. Will this game be fun? No doubt. Will this game be great? That's a lot more fuzzy.

Bioware had a few missteps last year with Dragon Age II being widely panned (for a Bioware game). The final Mass Effect 2 DLC "The Arrival" was also not well received. Plus there's the general pressure of the "third in series" ruining the whole thing. It's happened a lot with movies (we'll get to that) and it tends to happen in gaming although less so.

The story has been building and after Mass Effect 2's huge lack of plot I'm really ready for something significant to happen again. I hope there's not too much "go here and recruit these people" type missions because that's basically the entirety of the last game and I'm worried that might be sort of similar here.

The more I look back on the first two games, the more I'm impressed by ME1 over ME2 at least in terms of storytelling. Hopefully ME3 is a combination of ME2's improved mechanics with a ME1's wonderfully paced plotting.

The worst part will be having to buy it through EA's stupid Origin service...

1. Half-Life 2: Episode 3 / Half-Life 3

"What?!" you say. Half-Life 3 is coming out? When did that announcement happen? Well, sorry folks. It didn't.

It needs to.

I love, love, love, love Half-Life above all the other Valve games (even Portal), but even I'm worried that I'll start to not care about this series.

Fact: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 came out in October of 2007. Assuming Valve's been working on Episode 3 (or HL3, whatever it is) since then, I'll be be 5 years in development this October. It took 6 years between Half-Life 1 and 2, but in that time Valve developed an entirely new engine from the ground up as well as the Steam platform. Plus the company was younger, smaller, and less mature. Portal got a full sequel already. Given that information, it seems perfectly reasonable that Valve will either release the game this year or at least tell us when it's coming. Again, they need to.

The biggest question is will it be the promised Episode 3 or is this a full-fledged sequel? I expect in either case the game will be longer than the previous episodic installments and we'll see at least one new major game mechanic. It seems we have a lot of story left before the Combine story-arc is over. Either way, that's my prediction crazy and unfounded as it might be. This year Valve will finally count to three.

Up next... My Top 5 Most Anticipated Films!

Oh dear, the Internet's in Trouble Again...

2011-12-28T22:16:00.000-06:00

If you love the internet (and let's face it, we all do to some degree) then you need to watch this video. It's a bit dry. It's a bit scare-mongery, but it's also vitally important.

For those unaware. There are a couple of horrible, horrible bills floating around the U.S. Congress - Protect IP and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) - which concern the future of the internet. Basically, these bills are the entertainment industry's attempt to fight piracy and copyright infringement.

Look, piracy is wrong. People shouldn't do it, but this isn't the right response either. Thing is, how the internet actually works is complicated and technical so writing law surrounding it needs to be done carefully so as not to end up with hundreds of thousands of unintended consequences.

These laws jeopardize the freedom of the net and could lead to censorship. At minimum, they are anti-competitive. At worst, they get us a lot closer to China's "Great Firewall." They must not pass.

The internet is an awesome opportunity for regular people to broadcast their ideas as well as an outlet for large corporations to reach their customers. And that's why it's great. It's pretty much the closest thing to a level playing field there is.

If you care about the internet, please do something about this. I urge you to get in contact with your local representatives and voice your opinion on the subject.

I don't get political about too many things anymore, but when it comes to messing up the internet, it's nerd rage time!

Why Bastion is Awesome

2011-12-19T16:43:00.001-06:00

This is, perhaps, one of the most pure and enjoyable gaming experiences I've had since I first played A Link to the Past.

For those of you who don't know my relationship with ALttP, this is saying a tremendous amount.

Now, I want you to know that I realize a few things:

1. The things I review here are a fairly eclectic mix. I try to keep them a bit dated on purpose. I don't want to build expectations that I'll review a new movie, book, or game when it first comes out or even within several months after its release.

This isn't that kind of review series. This is simply a "here's what I've been geeking out about lately" series.

The games I've been playing (often years after they first came out), the books I've been reading (likewise), and the movies or TV shows I've been revisiting. All of these are candidates for coverage on this series, and I like to give attention to the things that are important or meaningful to me.

(For these and many other reasons, I realize now that I should probably talk about A Link to the Past today instead, but I haven't played that one lately, so it's going to have to wait.)

So, yes, once in a while, you'll get something like my Alloy of Law review, simply because I'm a huge fan of the series and I consume the books I'm excited about. Other times, you'll get reviews like this one, because a game or etc. is Just. That. Good.

Most of the time, however, you'll get stuff like my Arkham Asylum review, because that's what I want to do.

2. I realize a lot has been said about the narrator in this game. It's all true. He really is that good. The game is worth getting for so many more reasons than just him, but his presence is yummy, yummy icing on top of an already delicious cake.

(Mmm...cake...)

On with the review.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the game, Bastion follows a simple premise: One day, a kid wakes up (scene captured above), and the world is gone.

It's a fairly standard apocalyptic premise. Some manner of Calamity has occurred, leaving few survivors. One of the main goals of the characters involved is to try and build a new world while attempting to salvage what fragments remain from the old one.

The best thing about this game is that these two themes tie into the gameplay mechanics seamlessly.

You start out alone, but as soon as you begin to move, the voice of the narrator drops in and the world around you begins to build itself up. As you move, the path/layout of the level constructs itself in real time, making you feel as though the world is building itself for you alone. While this kind of self-centered attitude is not what we want to teach our children, it's immensely satisfying as a gameplay mechanic, as it makes you feel like you're having a direct impact on the world around you.

Soon, you come across a hammer (again, for those of you who don't know, the narrator is describing your every move along the way, but not in an annoying way). With this first weapon, you then face off against, well, the world. The above picture gives a good impression of how this feels.

This is probably a good enough time to talk about the actual gameplay, by which I mean the combat.

Over the course of the game's story, you collect a dozen weapons, each tied to a military group from the nation that you lived in (y'know, before it was destroyed). These range in complexity and tech level from the above-mentioned hammer, to a repeater crossbow, to a pair of dueling pistols, to a spear, to a mortar, and more.

Yeah, the setting is a bit sideways in its tone.

But here's the kicker: it works. The quirky art style makes everything, from the pseudo-steampunk tech level to the crazy, post-apocalyptic war setting, blend seamlessly together so that you never question any of the oddities (including the fact that everything you walk on is floating in the air!)

Beyond that, each of the weapons feels distinct. And from the beginning of the game until the end, there are legitimate reasons to use all of them. As in many modern games (particularly shooters), you're only allowed to carry two weapons with you. So this consideration of "what do I bring with me on this mission" becomes a tactical one, or a preference of playstyle, and not a simple evaluation of "which one is more powerful?"

The answer: All of them, depending on the situation.

See, this is what really bothers me about a lot of RPGs these days (and make no doubt about it, Bastion is a sublime example of the genre, just slightly different than most). Throughout most games, you're constantly gathering, examining, and equipping better and better equipment, in order to combat the greater and greater challenges that come.

Sometimes, this can get a bit annoying.

"What's that, you really like the appearance and secondary effects of that +2 Blitzing Shortsword of Freedom? Sorry, it's not going to be powerful enough for you to fight the Final Dragon of Doom (who is, in fact, in the middle of the game). You need to equip the +3 Flaming Club of Chains, because it's better. Why? Because we said so. Why does it look so stupid? I don't know, we ran out of time, and an art budget."

This is particularly frustrating in the MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games), where your appearance is an expression of personal preference, as much as statistical benefit.

Now, I understand why the advancement of equipment is a good thing. The constant acquiring of magical gear is a way to give a feeling of statistical and character progression during the oftentimes long periods between actual level-ups. That's cool, but I'm always interested in seeing someone challenge that approach.

Bastion does that.

As I said above, you slowly expand your arsenal of weaponry, but at no point in time does any weapon become obsolete. Sure, some seem to have more of a punch and thus seem more powerful upon first acquiring them (the "cool" factor of the mortar was especially powerful, considering the environment you obtained it in). However, you quickly learn that they all have their advantages and drawbacks.

More importantly, however, is the level of customization that can be added to the weapons beyond the simple "conditional considerations."

Much like you would level up a character in a traditional RPG and learn new attacks or improve your damage output, Bastion allows you to "level up" your weapons, unlocking new features. These range from increased damage, to adding a knockback effect, to reducing reload time, to increasing ammunition stores, and much more. In time, this can make the unwieldly Army Carbine into a sharpshooter's dream, or the lowly Cael Hammer into a destroyer of worlds.

But here's the real trick: you don't have to settle on just one thing.

Sure, you could upgrade that hammer for pure damage output, giving you special attacks that take time to charge up, but deal tremendous amounts of destruction when unleashed. However, you could also improve it to be better for crowd fighting -- giving it some knockback and a critical hit chance. And you can flip-flop between any amount of either setting every time you visit the armory.

It's this kind of free-form flexibility that sets Bastion apart. And it doesn't stop simply with the weapons. You can also customize your character's abilities by equipping certain tonics and other drinks that provide certain effects: from increased health, to improved movement speed while defending, to an ability that damages enemies when you die (it's okay, you'll get better). As you level up, you'll not only unlock new tonics, but you'll be allowed to equip more simultaneously.

While I do still enjoy the static progression of traditional RPGs, and I don't want to see them disappear completely, I would like to see more games like Bastion, games that take a risk with the customization by making it more open-ended (in the sense that, increasing your level increases your available gameplay options, not simply your damage potential).

One more note on the things that Bastion does well: as I mentioned above, the sense of progression.

In addition to the simple, quirky visual style of the platforms rising up to meet your feet as you walk past, Bastion provides a sense of progression (and reconstruction) by allowing you to actually rebuild the nation that was destroyed.

Okay, doesn't sound that exciting on paper, but again, this is tied to gameplay.

All of these wonderful character-building options are provided for you through various types of buildings: to improve your weapons, you go to the forge, to improve your character, you go to the distillery, to select your weapon loadout, you go the armory. Each building has a specific purpose.

However, you don't have access to any of these buildings at first. You have to build them over the course of the game, before you will be able to apply the bonuses I talked about above.

This provides tremendous incentive, beyond the story, to pursue the story-based missions. Training in the various zones does you little good without having access to all your options. So you pursue the story in order to unlock more of the Bastion's town. Along the way, you'll encounter a compelling story, but if you're purely looking for gameplay here, it's as good as an incentive as I've ever found.

Unlike other RPGs, you can only spend so much time wandering about "wasting" time with the sidequests before you hit a glass ceiling. Then you have to progress the story to progress your character.

Like I said, a seamless blend between gameplay and story. Beautiful. Elegant. So many good things to say.

All right. I'm going to cut myself off there. To say any more would be to repeat myself (if I haven't already), or else would ruin the game (again, if I haven't already). Go play Bastion if you haven't already, I highly recommend it, and I hope I've articulated why now.

I'm Joshua Kehe, and that's all I have to say.

Explanation for Delays

2011-12-05T22:42:00.001-06:00

Hey, everyone.

I know the posting has been a bit less than consistent in the past few weeks. I'm sorry about that, and thought you deserved a bit of an explanation.

As Matt mentioned at the beginning of November, we both participated in NaNoWriMo this year.

Obviously, that took a lot of time. It also wasn't our only obligation during the month, so other goals had to slide.

The experience was worth it, though, and I'm actually quite pleased by how much we were able to post during the month, maintaining a reasonably consistent one-post-per-week for the majority of the month.

As things began to pile on, however, cuts needed to be made. Matt had some projects come up, which slowed his progress with the NaNo novel (which I'm really looking forward to read, buddy), and I had to put in a pretty major push to finish off my own novel (you can find the results of my efforts, including the entire novel, over at my writings blog here).

Unfortunately, finishing November's goals didn't free up much time for us, as we are now in full swing for final projects here at the end of the semester. I know I'm certainly facing an impenetrable wall of intimidation that's making it very difficult for me to get my regular writing done, much less additional writing for these blogs.

Again, I'm sorry about that, as I really enjoy posting here and exploring other sides of my geekery. But... well, such is life, right? Let it be.

My hope is that, once Finals are done with, the posting will resume on a consistent schedule (you know, like we started to hint at during November), but I try not to make promises anymore. (We've seen how consistent I am at keeping them. Sigh.)

Anyways, I hope that this explanation doesn't disappoint you all too terribly, and that if you've been wondering at the silence, this will suffice until the posting picks up again.

Until then... well, it's time to go back and face that wall...

I'm Joshua Kehe, and I don't have anything else to say.

Except, of course, that I have another blog where I'm challenging myself to write one short story per day during the month of December. It's slow-going so far, but you can read about my efforts, as well as the rest of my writing life, over there at The Craftsman's Journey.

Zelda: Skyward Sword First Impressions

2011-11-21T19:36:00.001-06:00

I found myself in a Best Buy store for a brief time this evening. Wondering if their Wii display might be have the latest Zelda game just released yesterday, I wandered to the video game section. Sure enough, there was a Skyward Sword demo in the system. Awesome.

The latest Zelda game has been getting lots of buzz. Some reviewers have called it the "best" Zelda game ever. That Skyward Sword might be the best game of a 25-year-old critically acclaimed series is a huge statement.

The biggest question for me regards the touted motion controls. I have no doubt that the level design, art, and gameplay is all good stuff. Nintendo's pretty consistently good at that. But did they ruin it with their own attempts to innovate with motion control?

I am a motion control skeptic. No. That's not accurate. I hate motion controls. I can and have ranted on this topic to various people who were polite enough to listen. In summation, I feel motion controls are either annoying gimmicks tacked-on to games like 3D is tacked-on to movies or integral components which ruin otherwise good games (i.e. Metroid Prime 3.) It is rare that motion controls actually make games better or even come close to working as well as advertised.

Nintendo, ironically, gained huge praise and notoriety in its early days for tight controls in games like Super Mario Bros. and the original Legend of Zelda. But for the life of the Wii, they've been making, in my opinion, the aforementioned mistakes with motion control in their flagship franchise games.

Ask anyone who played Twilight Princess. Did the motion controls help? No. Everyone I've ever talked to who played the Wii version complained that the small amount of motion control added to the game at the last minute degraded the experience. I thought the control was great. I played it on the good ol' GameCube. With buttons. Real buttons.

The Skyward Sword demo had three selections: flying a bird (that's how you get around the overworld), a dungeon, and a boss fight. I didn't have much time so I opted for the dungeon as a way of experiencing the broadest range of gameplay in a short time.

The dungeon turned out to be a large circular room with a tower in the center of it and doors around the outside perimeter. Typical Zelda stuff.

Wanting to try out the combat, I looked around an enemy. Quickly I found a Skulltula (a spider, for the uninitiated) which swooped down from the ceiling on a web. I tried to fight it while it was hanging there. I swung the remote a few times. My swings did no damage at all. Oh, yeah. They have hard shells. It's been awhile since my last Zelda game.

I had a bit of a hard time with this my first enemy encounter. A single Skulltula kicked my butt. It was bad.

After that I figured out a few things. I decided to take on a ground-borne enemy. I found a goblin-type thing (don't know the "official" name) and engaged it.

Swinging the remote swings the sword. You're supposed to be able to swing it in eight directions for different angles, but I didn't feel like it was always very accurate about that. Thrusting it forward causes Link to stab. Shaking the nunchuck raises your shield.

Despite the motion control changes, the combat still feels distinctly Zelda. You find an enemy, Z-target it, and attack using the A-button and a direction to strafe around your target while you wait for the appropriate moment to strike. It's a proven, solid system. Lots of fun.

I had a lot more luck with the goblin. I killed it pretty easily. Other enemies in the level included plant-like Deku Babas, Keese (bats), and a Stalfos (skeleton) mini-boss. Fighting the Stalfos was fairly fun. Enemies with swords can not only attack but also block with them. In order to hit them, you have to perform the proper swing. In fairness, I think the controls worked reasonably well. I think it's system I could get used to with practice.

The motion controls also worked well with some of Link's other gadgets: a bow, bombs, and a new item which I'll come to in a moment. I was pleasantly surprised that the archery worked fairly well. The WiiMotionPlus attachment has markedly improved accuracy. I felt like I was bad at archery because I needed practice and not merely because the Wii control was holding me back.

The new item is called the beetle which is a flying drone-like device. You launch it and take control of its flight using the remote. It can hit switches and grab items Link can't reach otherwise. It works quite well and seems like it adds a lot of gameplay potential. After I beat the Stalfos I got a chest with an upgrade for the beetle which gave it a claw for grasping things.

One place I didn't like the motion control was in walking across a tightrope. You have to hold the remote upright and keep Link balanced on the rope to move. It's needless and not any fun. I'm guessing there are a few other areas where needless motion control is employed. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I have one more really, really petty complaint. The famous Zelda puzzle-solve chime sounds super lame in this game. Seriously, guys. It's a cool sound. How could you mess that up?

My brief time with the game left me wanting more. Even though this is a Zelda game we're talking about here, this is a somewhat surprising statement given my prejudice against the Wii and all things motion-controlled. It's not quite as good as I was hoping for. It still doesn't feel like you have full control over Link's sword. There are still minor annoyances with controls and the camera. But overall I was pleasantly surprised.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is definitely a game I'll be playing at some point in the future, though no game can eclipse my currently level of excitement for Skyrim which, due to school, I still have yet to play. Maybe after I've played them both I'll do a joint review called "Skyrim Sword" or something corny like that.

Why The Alloy of Law is Awesome

2011-11-14T00:34:00.001-06:00

Right, so I'm sorry for the rather scatter-brained review last week. I realize I was all over the place with the praise and the criticism and you might not have been able to follow my internal logic (it sometimes moves too fast for even myself to keep up). As I explained, the self-imposed deadline kind of snuck up on me. While that's not a very professional excuse, at least it's an explanation.

This post, if I say so myself, is much better thought-out. So I hope you appreciate it (or at least understand it).

Now, onwards with the review!

The Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson

A few of my friends have a saying when it comes to describing types of books -- it's a saying I'm somewhat hesitant to share here, but I'm going to nevertheless.

"Jim Butcher is like a gourmet cheeseburger, while George Martin is a five-course meal."

Now, I don't know about you, but I like food. I enjoy eating and I appreciate a well-made meal. But I definitely have cravings for different types of food at different times, and I definitely would not want to eat the same food or even the same category of food all the time.

The same is true for books.

Just as I enjoy tearing into a big, fat, juicy cheeseburger from time to time, I love flying through a Jim Butcher novel, with it's quick pace and fun characters and exciting turns. Wow, what a ride!

At the same time though, I also appreciate the careful arrangement of items on each plate of food for the various courses of a luxury meal and the delicate blend of flavors that helps you to appreciate the entire meal as if it were one, delicious dish. Such is the work of George Martin, and his ponderously epic tomes in The Song of Ice and Fire series.

Both of these styles have merit. Both are needed for a healthy, well-balanced reading diet. (At least I think so.) And it is the dichotomy between these two styles that sums up my feelings about The Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson.

See, Alloy of Law is a sequel to Sanderson's blockbuster Mistborn trilogy.

Except that...it's not. Not really.

I mean, sure, it's set in the same world. And it takes place after the events of that first trilogy. But that's really where the similarities end. This is a completely different story, and it's told in a completely different way.

The Mistborn trilogy is a masterful study in careful plot execution. The twists that are revealed in each book are phenomenal and yet they're nowhere near the level of awesome that the twists from the final book reveal about the previous two books! Of course, alongside all that you have Brandon's masterful blending of character, world, and magic systems to create compelling developments of plot, emotion, and action. Etc. Etc. It's amazing. Go read it. These books are epic in every sense of the word.

Alloy of Law is different, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.

Alloy of Law is about half the size of a single book from the Mistborn trilogy. (I told you they were epic.) And it shows. This book MOVES. Granted, as usual for Brandon, it takes a few chapters to get everything set up. But once that gunshot of plot goes off, you'll fly through the remaining two hundred pages. I did.

This was my chief concern with the book. When I heard that Brandon Sanderson would be writing a short (for him) standalone Mistborn novel set in the what equates to the Victorian era of that world, I was both ecstatic and hesitant.

Ecstatic, of course, because it's a new Mistborn book. And they get guns!

My hesitation came though because of its shorter, standalone nature. I've seen Brandon do good standalone work before (Elantris, his first book, is a fascinating, meditatively paced novel about a fallen city of gods). But he excels in the epic, series books (the aforementioned Mistborn is the highest example to date, but he's also showing tremendous promise with his recent The Way of Kings, and he was chosen to finish Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time). He has, on numerous occasions, expressed his love for the larger, more epic tomes, so you may understand and forgive my concern when I learned of this shorter book.

I honestly doubted that Sanderson could pull off a tighter, more adventure-driven story, without trying to shove in an epic twist or arc somewhere near the end.

Fortunately, I was wrong.

Alloy of Law is pure Jim Butcher thrill rides mixed with Sanderson's brilliant Mistborn worldbuilding. The plot is tight, the characters are fun, and the action is smooth. Even the revelations about the larger state of the world at the very end of the book don't feel too out of place. It's a beautiful continuation of the series that still stands on its own.

And yes, it does stand on its own. Sanderson effectively introduces the necessary information for newer readers to appreciate the limits and capabilities of the various magic systems at play here (as well as pointing out a few new intricacies to us veterans) without bogging down the pace with overly detailed explanation.

Granted, you'll definitely get more out of it if you've read the first trilogy, if only because you'll have seen some of the mythic characters and events that the people in this book revere as legendary history and religion. And I think that adds a level of enjoyment to the book that you otherwise wouldn't have if you didn't understand all the "in-jokes."

However, the important thing to realize is that you don't NEED the prior knowledge and in-jokes in order to appreciate Sanderson's wit, skill, and charm in this novel. Honestly, if you've never read any of Brandon's work, you need to, and there are definitely worse places to start than with this novel.

So here it is, my recommendation: If you've never considered reading epic fantasy, or have been wanting to see who this Brandon Sanderson character is that I keep talking about, Alloy of Law serves as a fast-paced, fun-filled entrance to one of his most important works.

Take a look. If you like it, definitely go back and read his Mistborn trilogy, and then see if you're still hanging on.

Those of you who are already Mistborn fans, you've probably already read it, or else you've got it on your "to-do" list. If not -- if you're on the fence like I was -- get off and go buy this book. Or at the very least give it a read.

Until next time, I'm Joshua Kehe.

Why Portal 2 is Awesome

2011-11-07T23:54:00.003-06:00

Goodness, look at that, Monday again already? And it's Monday night at that. Yeesh, I need to start making a weekly to-do list or something if I'm going to remember all of these personal blogging goals that I haven't made public yet.

Oh, wait. I did that. Last week. It worked pretty well.

Huh, okay. New item on the nonexistent to-do list for this week: "Write to-do list for next week."

Okay, on with the review.

So I finished Portal over the weekend. (Yes, I know I'm late, that's going to be a theme of this series.) Then I went straight into playing Portal 2 because the ending of the first game was so flipping fantastic.

The near-seamless transition into the second game was beautiful, though there was a slight disconnect in the immersion at first because some of the controls and effects felt ever so slightly different (movement was a bit too responsive, the portal gun no longer fires "bullets" but instead opens the portals with a near-invisible projectile, etc). Regardless, I was very impressed.

*ahem*

Pause for dramatic effect and topical disassociation.

...

So I finished Portal 2 this afternoon.

Yeah, it kind of grabbed hold of me.

Now, I've been a big fan of Portal since before I ever even played the game. The concept of a puzzle-based shooter was innovative, sure, and I love me some semi-teleportation. But when I heard of the snarky AI who was trying to kill you (and, even better, heard some samples of her dialogue), I was hooked.

I say all this to explain why, when I finally got to play the game, it felt more like going through the motions for the majority of the game rather than encountering a polished gem of an experience like the rest of the world. I readily admit that Portal is an excellent game that rewards careful thinking over spastic reflexes (my favorite kind of game, as we probably established last week), while simultaneously blending the gameplay with its setting and tone in a near-seamless manner. It just didn't blow me away like it did the rest of you.

(Until I got to the end of course, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible to not feel accomplished after that.)

Portal 2, however, I came to off of the high I received by finishing Portal 1. I also came to it without any prior notions (aside from a somewhat-common complaint that the transitionary portions were a bit confusing).

As I'm sure you've no doubt gathered, I loved Portal 2. And that's true, but I need to qualify that statement.

Portal 2 is an amazing game when considered in conjunction with Portal 1.

This is how sequels are done. Especially for video games. The experience is larger, but the gameplay remains as tightly focused as ever.

Let's try to break it down a bit, shall we? (Minor spoilers throughout, I suppose.)

1. From the get-go, you can tell this game is going to be different. I could, of course talk about that introductory sequence where the bedroom changes from pristine to post-apocalyptic and how that basically serves as the transition in tone from the first game into the second, but I'm not.

Instead, I want to talk about that sequence where the AI tears your apartment free from whatever dock it was resting in and transports you through a veritable hive of apartment units to reach the testing chambers.

Within the first few minutes of the game, the walls around you are broken down and you get to see a hint of the expansiveness of this game. You can practically feel the increase in budget that the developers received as you look out to see never-ending spaces around every corner and massive objects stretching out of sight.

The game feels BIG.

And yet, for the majority of the game, the actual action, as I said before, remains tightly focused on the room-based puzzles.

But I want to come back to this sense of bigness before we move on to the element of focus I mentioned above.

Initially, I was impressed, sure, but I also thought they were merely showing off. I thought, "Oh, wow. That's really cool. But it's also to be expected. This is a 'full-price' game so it should have a 'full-price' budget. Sure." Beyond that, I didn't think they'd do much with it.

As I'm sure was the case for many of you with the first game, I was pleasantly surprised. As the story progresses, the conflict grows and the relationships established in the first game deepen. You delve into the history of the labs and thus our understanding of the world expands as well. The stakes are higher and the eventual climax -- though slightly ridiculous -- also manages to be huge without sacrificing any of the tight gameplay and character focus that we've come to expect from the previous game.

That's what's so incredible about both Portal and Portal 2, everything in these games compliments everything else in some way. Just like a well-plotted novel will tie theme and setting and character and foreshadowing all together for a satisfying resolution, so too does Portal tie environment and mechanics and character into one another for a tight experience.

Okay, I think that's enough jumbled thoughts about the gameplay experience, particularly as it pertains to size.

2. Let's talk about character. Or, more specifically, character-driven plot.

See, this is an especially important thing for video games, as the player is the character. And if the player doesn't feel like they have an impact on the world, it marginalizes their experience. I talked last week about how satisfying it was to hear the Joker and his goons reacting to my actions as Batman in Arkham Asylum. How that made me feel powerful and important and, this is the kicker, more like Batman. Even if the overall direction and plot of the game is more-or-less linear, it's still possible to create an experience that feels organic and player-motivated.

That was actually an issue I had with Portal 2 at first. Through the initial sections of the game, as you're following Wheatley through the corridors to escape the facility, you do a lot of running around and listening to this incompetent British AI tell you what to do. It's especially annoying once you've gotten the fully-functional Portal gun, because then your stuck in these areas with surfaces that you can't create portals on, and you feel really restricted -- like you're on a rail shooter or something.

"I'm holding the omnipotent power to bend space-time to my will, and you're taking it away from me! RAWR!!!"

*ahem*

Sorry about that.

Like I said, I was a bit miffed. But as the game progresses, the environments become more and more controllable. Which is an interesting way to create a feel of player progression. In the first game, you learned more tricks with the physics engine. The same is true in this game as well, of course, but you're also given more tools to manipulate the environment with (the gels and such), and I thought that was an innovative way to add to the experience of Portal 1 without making you go through all the same puzzles again.

But it's also the story that makes you feel influential. And here's how.

*SPOILERS*

When you defeat Glados (again) and deposit Wheatley into the computer, everything kind of clicks in the experience up to that point, and the game really blooms. He delivers a speech about how you've been bossing him around the whole time (which you know is utterly false, and thus drives home his defining character trait: intentionally obtuse) and then smashes you down a maintenance shaft with Glados. Along the way, you and Glados have a heart-to-heart chat (well, she chats, you listen) before you land at the very bottom of the Aperture Science labs, deep underground. You then spend THE REST OF THE GAME contemplating how everything is all your fault before finally confronting the incompetent Wheatley in his lair.

*END SPOILERS*

It's brilliant, because it makes even the annoyances in the game an intentional part of the experience.

The more important thing this does, though, is it prevents the game from repeating itself.

3. Now, of course, the game wasn't going to repeat itself because this is set a long time after the first game and etc. etc. etc. You all saw the pictures. But it would've been really easy to just revive Glados and then make you go through a whole bunch of new test chambers in what would basically have amounted to a rehash of the first game. They would, of course, introduce a few new environmental hazards or Portal gun functions to make us think they hadn't completely phoned it in. And the environment would've probably received a bit of a cosmetic facelift as they used their semi-post-apocalyptic setting to add some natural elements to the test chambers. But the end experience could've been nearly identical to Portal 1.

Instead, because they aimed big with the depths (see what I did there?) they wanted to explore with the character and world development, they were able to give us an entirely new experience without sacrificing that core focus of the gameplay. (There I go with that again.) I mean, this felt like a clear continuation of the previous game, as if the previous game had simply been Act 1 of a larger story. (For those of you who don't know, Acts 2 and 3 need to feel very different from Act 1 without betraying the promises you made or sacrificing the elements you established in Act 1. Basically.)

That's cool. The sequel reminds us of what was awesome about the first game without cheapening our experience by unnecessarily/lazily recycling old gameplay or ignoring prior story developments.

This is an awesome game, and it works so tightly with its prior installment that I really do think they should be considered in tandem from now on. But that's probably a discussion for another day.

Until next time, I'm Joshua Kehe.

I have another blog where I'm talking about NaNoWriMo this month. If you're interested or curious, please come over and take a look. I promise I'll be friendly. :)

November is Insanity

2011-11-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been awhile. As usual, I didn't intend to fall off the face of the earth... or blog as it were. It's been a busy semester and continues to be.

Speaking of busy, my buddy Joshua Kehe convinced me over the weekend against my better judgement to participate in National Novel Writing Month. For those unaware, National Novel Writing Month (abbreviated NaNoWriMo, yes really) is an event wherein participants attempt to write a novel of at least 50,000 words during the month of November.

For students (like me) November is not always a great month for this. My schedule was already hectic with work, school, and the maintenance of a social life to keep me sane. With the semester drawing to a close, it's time to seriously work on final projects and make sure other class requirements are finished. Moreover, the holidays are approaching which can take a few days away from writing. This puts the daily required word count at 1,786 per day assuming I only miss two days for Thanksgiving and Black Friday. This is almost certainly an incorrect assumption.

I have been trying to write a novel for years and have attempted NaNo a few times in the past. But this year I feel a bit more dedicated. Maybe it's because it's crazier. Hey, the Cardinals just won the World Series and they were underdogs all the way. The odds are against me, but I don't care. I'm going for it.

You can follow my progress here. Any words of encouragement or advice are most welcome. So is prayer. It's gonna be a crazy month.

Bring it on.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Impressions/Review

2011-10-31T23:21:00.002-05:00

I. Love. This. Game.

So, I'm only about halfway through the game right now, but I could have told you at the 20% mark why I love this game.

Also, I realize I'm a bit late to this party, but three things justify my thoughts on this game:

1. It's Halloween, and who's scarier than Batman?
2. Arkham City just came out on the consoles, and it comes out on PC in a couple weeks, so I thought it'd be good to reflect a bit on this game.
3. I freaking love this game!

Ahem.

So, why is this such a great game?

Wow. Where do I begin?

Okay, there's been a lot said and written about the elegance of the fighting system and the brooding aesthetic and the embodiment of what it feels like to be Batman, and all those things are fantastic. However, there's one element of this game that elevates it above so many others:

The integration of the villain in the story.

There are a lot of really great villains out there from a variety of media but I think it's difficult to think of many that rank above the Joker. Darth Vader springs to mind for me, and I'm sure you have your own, but the Joker definitely ranks in the top five "most iconic villains." So it makes sense that he would be the "big bad" for a Batman game.

However, the problem I most often see with video games, when it comes to villains, is that they fail to make a personal connection between the player character and the villain. Oftentimes it's just a big, nebulous idea or far-off despot of some kind that the players seldom get to interact with until we reach the final dungeon, level, quest, etc.

Even great games with great villains will fall into this trap. Knights of the Old Republic has Darth Malak as its final boss and the only time you ever see him throughout the majority of the game is during cutscenes. And he's not even looking for you! He's after your companions more than anything else, so there really isn't any kind of connection going on there. (Yes, of course you learn of a significant connection that the game has been hinting at throughout your playtime, but that's more of a retcon integration copout than an actually meaningful relationship.)

(Also, interestingly enough, KotOR II shines in this department where KotOR was kind of drab, but I can't tell you why because it's a pretty major spoiler. Go look it up or, better yet, play the game if you're interested.)

Now, to contrast, most character-driven stories from other media will introduce the antagonist/villain very early on in the story and begin forging a relationship between them and the hero/protagonist. (Or, at the very least, the audience, but that's less meaningful.) I am a firm believer that the best video games are character-driven, because that means they're player-driven as well. Sure, plot can interrupt and take over from time to time, but the characters (and, by extension, the players) should be the primary motivators of the plot.

An excellent example of this is, I feel, Baldur's Gate II. The opening moments of that game introduce you to the antagonist and establishes why you hate his guts (he imprisoned, tortured, and experimented on you). As soon as you escape, it further establishes why you would want to pursue him (if revenge isn't a powerful enough motivator). Then, from that point on, you're making your way toward that goal through a series of player-motivated decisions, periodically visited by the antagonist in a series of dream sequences where he challenges your morality and ideals.

It's a masterfully crafted game and if you haven't played it before I encourage you to give it a try.

Now, back to Arkham Asylum.

This game has the best antagonist-integration I have ever seen in my entire life. Let's break it down piece by piece, shall we?

1. You escort the Joker into the asylum during the opening credits. You're in control here, so it's more-or-less player-motivated, even though it's on something of a track. During this time, the Joker is taunting you and otherwise establishing himself as a character. Even if you've never heard of Batman, you have a pretty good idea of who this clown is by the end of this sequence.

2. The Joker escapes and takes over Arkham, giving you a clear goal: catch him.

3. For the rest of the game, you hear the Joker over the loudspeakers as he taunts/encourages his men with a variety of ridiculous and hilarious PA announcements. This allows him to be present as a character throughout the experience without being a direct threat. Thus, you continue to get to know him as a character and distinctly feel him there, despite the fact that he's hiding in an office somewhere.

4. More importantly, the Joker's announcements respond to what you're doing. As you hunt down and take out his guards, he begins berating them and threatening them and otherwise pays attention to your actions. It's a brilliant way to make you feel like you're interacting with the villain, however indirectly, and further serves to validate your actions by making you feel more like Batman.

(I mean, seriously, how cool is it to hear everyone talking about your character as though you really are having an effect on the world? Even if the world is only one island large.)

5. Finally, there's the Visitor Center encounters. After each major arc in the story (each boss fight, basically) you have the opportunity to visit the Arkham Asylum Visitor Center, which is the creepiest building on the island because its this rundown, empty building with nothing but a Joker suit and a TV head sitting in one of the interview boxes.

Like I said, after each boss fight you can come in here and the Joker appears on the TV and basically does a psychological interview with you. Well, it's on Batman, who's basically you at this point. And it's more of a Hannibal Lecture than an interview, but the point is it's freaky and it's always relevant to either a) What just happened in the plot, or b) Legitimate psychological questions about Batman himself. It's a little thing, compared with all the other ways that the Joker makes himself known the game, but it's a very personal, almost intimate encounter each time.

Now, I could go on and on about how many other things the game simply does right. From the numerous, open-ended stealth sections. To the free-flowing and simple, yet still tactically relevant, fight system. To the use of Hans Zimmer's The Dark Knight soundtrack as inspiration for its own. To the integration and nods of other characters from the Batman lore (like Oracle, Mr. Freeze, Ventriloquist, etc.) into the game, despite the lack of any physical appearance from them. To the introductory sequences to the numerous Scarecrow boss battles that are so beautifully mind-trippy.

There are so many things that this game does right. But the one that pushes it up into my list of "Best Ever" is hands-down the villain integration that I've outlined above. More games (and stories in general) should strive for this kind of connection between the protagonist and the antagonist, the hero and the villain, the player character and the final boss, throughout.

It makes us care, it tells us about their relationship, and it makes us feel like we're actually making a difference by interacting with the villain in significant (albeit indirect) ways during the entire game.

Simply amazing.

Well, until next time, I'm Joshua Kehe.

I have another blog where I'm talking about NaNoWriMo this month. If you're interested or curious, please come over and take a look. I promise I'll be friendly. :)

Broken

2011-07-24T23:42:00.003-05:00

"I don't care if it hurts

I want to have control

I want a perfect body

I want a perfect soul"

- Radiohead, "Creep"

My closest friends know that I've been though an absolute roller coaster of emotions over the past year. It's been a year of joy mixed with pain mixed with fear and uncertainty. There have been times when, given the chance, I might have taken everything back - the joy and pain alike. I know enough now to say that that would be a grave error. God doesn't make mistakes when he shakes up our lives. Though my actions and the actions of others have caused great pain, to take it all back would be to rob God of the trust his sovereign hand warrants.

In all of this I have found myself wishing along the lines of the song above. I could do without the body, honestly. I just want a perfect soul. I don't want to do wrong by anyone. I don't want to cause hurt or pain or be a participant in evil. But even that wish is poisoned.

My wish to be perfect and blameless is, at its core, incredibly selfish. If I am honest with myself 100% then I know that I wish to be prefect not for the well-being of others, but for me. Think of all the benefits of a perfect soul for a moral man! My conscious would never plague me with those nasty feelings of guilt. People would like me, trust me; look up to me. Best of all: I would be the master of my own fate for no God is needed.

That's what's at the heart of my seemingly good desire. Ouch.

What I do need and don't wish is to be broken and humbled. And not just once. Over and over again.

My pastor said something to me a few weeks ago that I hope I'll never forget. "Biblical Christianity is a series of new beginnings. A series." And just when I think I've used up my last new beginning... well, I haven't. It's as simple as that, really. The difficult part is the balance of belief.

On the one hand, I have to believe that my sin is great. If I minimize my sin - if I overlook it, I run the risk of falling into a pattern. No. My sin is great. Fortunately, my Saviour is greater. That's the other half of the equation. If my view of God is disproportional to the view of my own sin, then there's a real problem. At that point I begin to wallow in despair. Again, I do not give God his due. The equation is balanced by a proper view of God (so many things are solved by that) which is far, far easier said than done.

So what am I supposed to get out of a year of intense joy and pain culminating in a sense of loss? That's asking the wrong question. It's a selfish question. The real question is: what am I going to do now? I have no idea.

For now I pray I don't forget the lessons I've been taught. I don't need a perfect soul. God will grant me that when I can handle it - not on this earth. I need to continue on with my imperfect soul depending of God to work though my deficiencies. What I need is a broken heart and contrite spirit.

"I cannot look you in the eye

So I check the knots on my disguise

‘cause I fell in love with fashion in the dark

and now I want a broken heart"

- Derek Webb, "I Want a Broken Heart"

Afraid to Lose Endurance

2011-07-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

"If I could have it back
All the time that we wasted
I'd only waste it again
You know I'd love to waste it again
Waste it again and again and again..."

- Arcade Fire, "The Suburbs (continued)"

I am a consummate time waster. I have wasted hours, days, weeks, and months of my life. I've even felt as though I've wasted years. It is easy to blame distractions around me. It was toys when I was a child. It is movies and video games now. And while much has been said about how those things can be time wasters and how there is some benefit to them as well, that is beside the point here.

What I have to realize is that, if I'm honest with myself, I am my own biggest obstacle. My problem is a lack of endurance. For a while I know what is right and do it. And slowly, over time, I lose resolve. I get lazy and everything reverts back to its original state. The original state of a human being is not a good place to be.

This lack of resolve has led to a lot of waste in my life. There's a lot of ground I might have covered, a lot of things I might have done or learned if not for my own lack of endurance - a lack of endurance in my work, in my behaviour, and in my faith.

I used to think there was no point to this line of thinking. Why think about where I might be if I had done things differently? What's the point when I can't change anything? The point is to be haunted.

Mistakes only count for something if we learn from them. Whether it is curiosity, pride or a combination thereof, I am the kind of person who often needs to learn things the hard way. Understanding something by experience is more effective than taking a "trust me" from someone else. Childlike faith is difficult for me.

I have been taught difficult lessons and I am certain I will continue to be taught them as long as I live. I need to be a bit haunted by what I've done. I need that incentive to not fail in the ways I a can prevent failure. I need the reminder of the pain. That's the only way to redeem the time that I've wasted and the wrongs I have done.

When we fall we bruise, but the bruises heal... all but the most serious. I pray it will not take a permanent scar for me to remember the hard lessons.

I need to be afraid to lose endurance. I need to be afraid of what that loss will bring. I need to be afraid of waste and wrongdoing. Most of all I need to be confident that God is fully capable of bringing about the change I need in my life. He can make this all have been worthwhile.

"Wasted hours before we knew

Where to go and what to do

Wasted hours that you make new

And turn into a life that we can live..."

- Arcade Fire, "Wasted Hours"

Crysis 2 Review

2011-06-28T23:51:00.001-05:00

After three months, Crytek has finally upgraded Crysis 2 to proper DirectX11 standards on the PC. Now, as promised, my review...

Escape from New York, anyone?

The original Crysis was one of many memorable games to come out in the fateful year of 2007 which some call the best year in gaming ever. Remember what came out that year? Bioshock, The Orange Box (Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 2), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Super Mario Galaxy and Mass Effect. Those were all great or at least very good games, but the game I had the most fun with was Crysis.

Crysis is distinguished among these for its video-card-crushing graphics from the future. Only recently has it been supplanted as the high-end PC benchmarking standard (that's impressive). Amazing graphics are only half of the story, however. The other half is the Nanosuit.

On-the-fly weapons modding makes a welcome return. More shooters should have this.

In Crysis you weren't just told you were a super-soldier: you felt like you were a super-soldier. Your character's high-tech Nanosuit came with a variety of abilities such as extra armor, temporary invisibility, super-strength, and super-speed. Whether you want to play like Rambo with guns blazing or be a sneaky ninja, Crysis let you do that very effectively. And you got to do it all with the game's gorgeous visuals. The Nanosuit gameplay combined with lovely scenery and destructible environments made it much more than an average shooter. I'll never forget the first time I tossed a grenade in a building and it blew apart dynamically. That was a gleeful moment: like playing with fireworks, only safer.

My personal expectations were very, very high for Crysis 2. I insist that my high expectations are not what ruined this game for me. Crysis 2 makes a lot of missteps, none of them fatal, but all contribute to making this just an average game instead of the amazing game it might have been.

To me, Crysis 2 is a tragedy. But it's more the pathetic kind of sad. Basically, Crysis 2 neglects the strengths of the previous game while utterly failing to improve upon the weaknesses despite trying very hard.

It's okay to blow up New York in again as long as you don't touch the Freedom Tower.

First, a word about the graphics. Many in the PC gaming community (of which I am a member) asserted that Crysis 2's graphics were hampered by the fact that the game had to run on consoles as well as PCs this time around. While it's certainly true that a PC-exclusive might have looked better, my personal opinion is that the sequel outdoes the original in graphical prowess... barely.

They're just different, I think. Decide for yourself. (Click for full size)

I'd let this point go if had it not been for Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli shooting his mouth off about the graphics being wildly better than the original game's. Wrong. At best, even with the DirectX11 upgrade (by the way, all of the pictures I'm showing you are with that upgrade and the high-res texture pack on the game's highest setting) the game looks a little better than the original. It's difficult to tell, of course, because Long Island is a far different setting than the fictional pacific Lingshan Islands so a one-to-one comparison is impossible. The graphics are certainly different. There seem to be a lot more post-processing effects in 2 which I personally could do without. They just make things generally blurrier. I appreciate some post-processing, but it's way overboard here. Also, even with high-res texture pack, there are still plenty of noticeable low-res textures. The character models look better. The animation seems improved.

Characters look really good in this game. Too bad none of them are likable.

Obviously, I'm being nitpicky. The point is, this is a sequel to a game known for its amazing graphics. The developer played on that in their marketing for this game and promised to blow away the original. I was underwhelmed, but that's mainly due to hype. It's a fine looking game and will challenge your PC or console's hardware.

More significantly, the Nanosuit gameplay has changed, mostly for the worst. On the bright side, the controls have been streamlined, the suit powers have been streamlined, and the experience of actually playing feels a bit tighter. Unfortunately the suit also feels a lot weaker than the first game. This is supposed to be Nanosuit 2! Even though you face tougher enemies, it should give comparable performance or at least offer some new features, right? Eh, there are a few new abilities. None of them excite or help to restore that lost feeling of being in control of the battlefield which the weakened Nanosuit causes.

Speaking of the battlefield, Crysis featured rather large, open levels. Even though the objectives were quite linear in actuality, the openness lent an air of freedom to the game that is sorely lacking in the sequel. For obvious reasons, the game can't let you loose in the whole of New York city. Your computer would explode. It would have taken Crytek like 15 years to model all that - we're talking Duke Nukem Forever development time here (without all that screwing around doing nothing.) I thought, however, a good compromise would have been to make levels encompassing several city blocks and allow the player to go anywhere inside that perimeter - that means into all the buildings too. But no. The levels make a half-hearted attempt at sprawling and rarely let you inside any buildings other than mission-specific ones. Fail.

I'm not sure how much of the game is spent trying to figure out where enemies are behind all the post-processing effects, but it's a lot.

Possibly worse: gone is most of the destructible scenery. Everything but the small-to-medium sized props are glued in place with only small amounts of cosmetic damage possible. Destructible scenery was one of my favourite features in the original. It added a lot of enjoyment and helped make the Nanosuit feel powerful.

The original game was weak on story and character development. It a fairly generic alien plot with nearly all military characters, most of them jerks. The two most likable people get banished to somewhere else for most of the game. In the standalone expansion Crysis Warhead, Crytek vastly improved the story and gave us an interesting, likable protagonist with real, genuine character development. I was stunned.

It is obvious Crytek was really trying to boost the story in this game. They made a big to-do about hiring British sci-fi author Richard Morgan to write for them. Never heard of him. Either his talents were wasted or he doesn't have much because the story in Crysis 2 is a convoluted mess. Worst of all I didn't even care. This time around there are no likable characters. Everyone is military, corporate, or conspiracy nut. Blah. For some reason your character, Alcatraz, is silent protagonist even though Nomad from the first game wasn't and Pyscho from Warhead definitely didn't keep his mouth shut. Most of the story is told not shown. And as far as a sci-fi story goes, there are two, maybe three interesting concepts. I'll spare you: one of them is the idea that your character is almost dead except for the suit which has grown into the damaged parts of his body. But the suit is one of the main problems in the story. It's basically a magic plot device for the writers to do with anything they like.

Prophet's in the game for about 2.5 seconds. And that's about how long I cared about the story.

The best part of the story is Prophet's (one of the likable characters from the first game) very brief appearance. And guess what? He kills himself not five minutes into the game! Thanks guys. Glad you decided to kill off one of your two good characters and not mention the other one for the whole bloody game.

So what does the game do right?

Uh, well...

It's a solid shooter, but not spectacular in any way. Toward the end it really gets going with some giant fights and finally you begin to feel like war machine you are meant to be. There are a few good battles with alien walkers known as "Pingers" which are by far the most fun enemy in the game. A few of the scripted sequences work well (although most of them are annoying or only serve to remind you how powerless you are) and provide some cool moments.

Honestly, it's not a bad game. It's just an okay game.

As a member of the PC gamer master race, I naturally blame the blandness on the game coming to consoles. Crytek made sacrifices to fit within console hardware budgets which limited the graphics, destructible environments, and size of the levels. The company focused heavily on developing a Modern Warfare-style multiplayer as well. The lame story has nothing to do with consoles whatsoever. That's squarely Crytek's fault.

Having failed to tell me a good story or even give me something fun to play with, Crytek's going to have to double-down and make Crysis 3 really compelling before I'm sold on the final chapter in this apparent trilogy.

And that was my most anticipated game of the year. Boy, did I bet on the wrong horse. Bring me Skyrim!

Vulgarity, Gaming, and Art

2011-06-12T19:38:00.000-05:00

This post is inspired by an article in PC Gamer with one of the developers of Far Cry 3 which briefly discussed how games handle mature content.

"A lot of games flirt with vulgarity. And I think if done incorrectly, vulgarity becomes pornography. I’m not here to make pornography. I’m here to make an entertaining, mature experience."

- Jason Vandernberghe of Ubisoft Montreal

I thought this was an interesting quote particularly because the clip of Far Cry 3 was the most edgy thing I posted here during my E3 reactions. There was a lot of visceral violence and some fairly strong language in it.

On the other hand, I very consciously did not post any new footage of Batman: Arkham City. Even though that game was a lot tamer in most respects and contained no abrasive language (not in the preview videos anyway) there was a whole lot of footage of the overtly sexualized Catwoman traipsing around in tight leather.

I'm guessing most people would consider the Far Cry 3 video more offensive and yet it's the one I decided to post. Why? There are two reasons for this. One is personal, one is, I think, what Mr. Vandernberghe is talking about.

Personally, I am far less affected by depictions of violence and profanity than I am by sexual temptation. I'm a man after all. As a Christian who struggles to properly control his God-given sexual desires and urges, I find childish sexual titillation such as Catwoman's appearance to be annoying at best and a catalyst for vice at worst.

But more than that, Catwoman's appearance is gratuitous. I think this is the key. Gratuitous violence, sex, and profanity is just unhealthy. Even Mr. Vandernberghe recognizes that to some extent.

I think this is one of the things that separates art from entertainment. Art is trying desperately to find truth and beauty in this fallen world we inhabit. It doesn't always find it. It doesn't always look obviously or externally beautiful. It's trying though. It's focusing on verity even though it often gets there in roundabout ways.

Entertainment asks "how can we make money?" Sex sells. Violence sells. Profanity sells. Humour, innovation, and good writing sell too, but those are hard. It's so much easier to find a hot girl and somehow get her to strip down to her skivvies for no good reason.

Why does Catwoman wear a tight leather cleavage-bearing outfit? Is that practical? Does it help her somehow?

No. The obvious real reason is because sex sells. It's titillation; it's fan service; it's gratuitous.

Vulgarity is easy because it is base. Have you ever noticed how much humour these days is blue? How much is about cursing loudly? Even children's films are filled with base humour.

While vulgarity itself is bad, portrayals of vulgarity are not. Vulgarity - sin - is very much a part of life and consequently must exist in our fiction and in our art in order to seek after truth.

There is no Gospel without the Fall. There is no story without conflict. Sometimes that conflict can be pretty ugly.

When I talk about proper use of "vulgarity" in fiction I always go back to my favourite war film Saving Private Ryan. Despite its R rating, I think the film is appropriate for everyone past a certain level of maturity. That's because the elements that warrant the R rating - the violence, the gore, the swearing - are not gratuitous. Why is all that stuff there? For the sake of realism. We are made to feel the plight of the soldiers. We sympathize with their plight. We feel it. And in the back of our minds we know that real people went through things very much like what we are seeing on screen.

Properly applied, "vulgarity" can transcend offense (with mature viewing audiences) and be employed in the service of good and of truth.

Now I'm not trying to say that Far Cry 3 is art and Arkham City is not. That's not my point. Neither game is out yet so I cannot judge. What I can say is that the philosophy espoused by Mr. Vandernberghe is encouraging although not completely on the mark. It's refreshing in an industry that's been historically criticized for reveling in depictions of violence, gore, and the objectification of women that at least one guy seems to be aiming a bit higher.

I have long believed that games are art or, at least, they have the capacity to be art. In fact, as an interactive medium, games have the potential to affect us more personally and more deeply in some ways than film or books ever can. Unfortunately artistic works like the Fallout series or Silent Hill 2, for example, are often overshadowed by games with gratuitous content like Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, or Duke Nukem Forever (although that's news for a completely different reason).

Most proponents of the idea that games are art believe that games are still in their infancy as an artform. That is absolutely true. We have barely begun to scratch the surface of how affecting games can be.

In a recent interview John Carmack, the famed game designer and engineer behind Doom, made the point that the gaming industry has been concentrated on providing better and better graphics for a long time, but if that same effort was applied toward making games more creative then perhaps we would be better off. At some point graphics technology is going to hit a plateau where most people won't notice or care about the improvements anymore. Perhaps then there will be less excuse for a lazy lack of innovation and quality in other aspects.

Too long has the video game industry relied on vulgarity to sell its goods while neglecting the true power of the medium to affect people in a real artistic way. I am hopeful that increasingly we will see this trend reigned in and replaced by quality storytelling, character development, and thematic presentations. Although I love games as entertainment, they can and should be so much more.

Geek Week: Day 3 & 4 - It's All About the Games, Baby

2011-06-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

Missed a beat yesterday. Life called, y'know?

As a gamer for much of my childhood until now, I'm always interested, however mildly, in what the industry is doing in general. However, as I stated at the beginning of the week, I am now and have been for years a solid PC gamer. Thus developments like the Wii U, PlayStation Vita, and Kinect, while somewhat fascinating, are probably things I won't personally own or use very often. For me, it's all about the games.

There are some huge titles being shown off this year. Here are some that I've found most interesting.

Far Cry 3

While not one of the aforementioned huge titles, I'm kind of excited about this. I didn't even know they were making a sequel.

Far Cry has an interesting history. The first game came out in 2004 as the first release from developer CryTek (makers of Crysis). This established the developer's penchant for gorgeous graphics, tropical island settings, and putting "cry" into their game titles.

Far Cry 2 was really a sequel in name only. It came from a different developer (Ubisoft), with a completely different setting, different characters (including the protagonist), and different tone to the story. They were both great-looking first person shooters and that's about all you could say.

I bought Far Cry 2 under the mistaken assumption that it was from CryTek and would be much like Crysis. It wasn't. That disappointed me a lot at first. And while the game did have some glaring flaws, it was a solid, open-world shooter in most respects and quite a lot of fun once you unlocked the game's vast variety of weapons.

Far Cry 3 takes the series back to a tropical island setting... an island full of insane people and you have to escape it. Sounds fun. The following gameplay trailer shows a little bit of character, action, and the game's thematic emphasis. Looks interesting. In a developer interview, one Ubisoft employee admits they were "taken to school" with some of the flaws of the previous game. It sounds like the game will remain open-world but with some significant improvements over last time. If they've learned from their mistakes, Far Cry 3 could be a whole lot of unfettered, insane fun.

Content advisory: some strong language and violence.

Batman: Arkham City

I'm somewhat confused by the premise of this game. So there's a whole section of Gotham City where criminals run loose? Hey, mayor! Bomb the place. Watch your crime rate drop like crazy.

I'm somewhat excited and somewhat annoyed about what I've been seeing with Arkham City. The exciting bits are the enhanced "Detective Mode," the new setting, and the seemingly open-world feel of the game. Arkham Asylum's environments were fairly large, but Arkham City, naturally, seems even more expansive. It'll be fun to fly around it all as the Dark Knight swooping down and taking bad guys out.

Here's what I don't like: Catwoman. I've never liked the character. The idea of having someone who's like Batman but morally ambiguous is a potentially interesting idea, but Catwoman's design, mannerisms, and actions are all about one thing: sex appeal. *groan*

There was a trailer entirely featuring her which really made me not want to play this game. Did she really have to look like that, Rocksteady? C'mon.

At least Christopher Nolan will almost certainly treat the character with more dignity in The Dark Knight Rises next year. Until then, we have Arkham City.

Metro: Last Light
Most of the gaming press and people who played it refer to Metro: 2033 as an underrated game no one played. That may be true. I picked it up on a Steam sale early this year to test out my new graphics card's Direct X11 capabilities.

Despite being set firmly within the post-apocalyptic genre, Metro had a unique feel to it mostly due to Ukrainian developer 4A Games. You spent much of the game traveling through the old Moscow metro system inhabited by humans and mutants alike.

Some of the most fun parts of the game where stealthily sneaking through enemy metros by taking out their sources of light and knocking them off one by one. Looks like there'll be a lot of that going on in the sequel which is reportedly about civil war between humans rather than the external threat of mutants like the first game. It also seems to feature destructible environments which is always a good time. Plus the trailer features a Portishead song. Marks for that.

Mass Effect 3

Awwww yeaaaah. I'm already sold on Mass Effect 3. I am going to buy this game. It's getting increasingly rare to see something truly new and excited in video games. The Mass Effect series is a first. It is the first modern RPG series to present you with hundreds, maybe thousands of choices large and small allowing you to carry those choices and their consequences on the story from game to game.

Bioware claims this has always been a planned trilogy. I guess so. Like a lot of trilogies parts 2 & 3 seem to have more in common with each other than part 1. My concerns are mostly of the nitpick variety. Although Mass Effect 2 was a great game, it was a giant character fetch quest when you got right down to it. But it was also one of the most personal games I've ever played. It was great to see so many callbacks to the choices I'd made in the first game.

I'm really hoping for a lot of interesting and cool stuff to happen in the conclusion. Since Bioware doesn't have to consider how your choices in ME3 carry over to a sequel, they should be free to make a huge variety of endings. Check out the awesomeness below.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I wasn't that excited about Skyrim in my most anticipated games list at the beginning of the year. I am now.

Skyrim promises a massive open world with exploration of diverse locations, fights with dragons, numerous weapons and skills, and the best bang for your buck in gaming. Most of the gameplay I've seen is combat-oriented. I'd prefer to see some more footage of the towns and settlements. I've always loved exploring those and working my way into various factions and guilds and, of course, breaking in and stealing things.

I did have a lot of of fun with Oblivion, but the flaws prevented me from playing that much of it. Fallout 3 became one of my favourite games of all time. Bethesda has a great track record for making game worlds that invite you in and Skyrim looks like the best yet.

Geek Week: Day 2 - Of Press Conferences

2011-06-07T23:30:00.002-05:00

E3 kicks off with the big three gaming companies (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) giving giant, overblown press conferences. My goodness are they unbearable. I forget that every year. This year I only suffered through a few minutes of each before simply hitting the highlights.

Microsoft, by all accounts, had a pretty run-of-the-mill conference announcing some kind of TV partnership, stupid tacked-on Kinect features in high-profile games like Mass Effect 3, and the final surprise announcement of *gasp* Halo 4. What? You mean Microsoft wanted to once again milk its most well-known and lucrative original franchise? What a shock.

*snore*

Sony began its show with a long, loud promo video and then a necessary apology for the lengthy outage of the PlayStation Network. Then it was games, games, games all except for the announcement of the company's new handheld console: the PlayStation Vita.

I hadn't heard any rumors about Sony releasing a new console handheld or otherwise so this came as a bit of a surprise to me. Sony's last few iterations of the PSP haven't been stellar successes. Despite having better specs and more features, the PSP has never been in the same ballpark as the Nintendo DS when it comes to sales numbers.

The Vita is Sony's response to the 3DS and I have to say it looks like the more compelling platform for the serious gamer. It's essentially a revamped PSP with better specs and a capacitive touch screen. Nice. If I didn't hate Sony's guts, I might be interested.

Here's why I think it's compelling. Rather than trying to do horrible, eye-straining 3D, Sony has integrated the best feature of iDevices and Android phones along with six-axis motion control and traditional analog joystick and buttons. It's all of the current ideas of how to interact with your games all in one nice neat package. It seems like a good platform for hardcore and casual games alike. I wonder how long it will be before the insufferable and ubiquitous Angry Birds is ported to the bloody thing.

Finally, Nintendo's press conference revolved around the reveal of the recently-rumored Wii 2... which is called the WiiU.

Yes, really. Reggie was serious. He's a serious man. Who works for Nintendo. It's really called the WiiU.

Believe me, I wouldn't make fun of the name so much if the product didn't look like this.

Are you kidding me? Did Fischer-Price make a game system?

Now before I lay into this thing, I'd like to say there are a few cool things about it. It's kind of cool tech. The console can stream the game you're playing directly to the controller's screen meaning you can play a game even if the attached TV is in use. It can also be used with a stylus to draw Wacom-table-style. Nice.

It's good to see some real innovation. However, just because it's new and different doesn't mean it's any good. I submit the Wii as an example of that.

As a controller, this thing looks bulky, possibly heavy after awhile, and unnecessarily distracting. A video showed off some potential uses for the new controller the last of which was a Legend of Zelda demo. Please do not ruin Zelda with this tacky gimmick, Nintendo. Remember what happened with Twilight Princess? Most people I talked to preferred the non-motion controlled GameCube version of that game.

Admittedly, the WiiU looks friendlier to hardcore gamers like myself. This is underscored by a substantial graphical upgrade with HD output (finally) as well as a lineup of M-Rated titles from third party developers. Still, according to reports from reports from the show, the graphical improvement is only comparable to the six-year-old Xbox 360. That's not particularly impressive, but maybe the Wii will stopped getting passed over by hardcore game developers.

Right now the new controller and all the comes with it are gimmicks. Motion control is still a huge gimmick (along with 3D, I'll add). They don't add any more essential fun because half the time you're wrestling with the system trying to get the controls to work. However, I think the technology will eventually catch up. Whether the gimmicks, once perfected, will prove actually worthwhile is anyone's guess. I'm thinking yes and no.

Tomorrow: games, games, games!

Geek Week: Day 1 - Apple Plays Catch Up and Maybe Leap Frog

2011-06-06T21:17:00.000-05:00

And with a vengeance Apple unleashes another long keynote upon the world that's received undue attention and press coverage.

Wait a second, you say. Why am I talking about it then? Well I'm stuck with the iPhone (I refuse to drop the definite article before Apple products like they want people to) for at least another year since I got suckered into the iPhone 4 last year.

I'll say this: it's a good phone with a decent operating system. However, Apple's iOS software is woefully behind Google's Android and has been for some time. I really think Apple needs to do major iOS revs every 6 months to keep up, but that seems unlikely.

As it is, Apple is behind. Last year they previewed iOS 4 in April and released it in June along with the iPhone 4. If the rumors are true (and they often are with Apple) then we'll probably see iOS 5's release along with the iPhone 5 or 4s or whatever it'll be called in September when new iPods are normally announced. I don't know quite why Apple is delayed 2-3 months with this. Probably because of iCloud, but we'll get to that.

iOS 5

Apple touted several new main features for the mobile operating system powering the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. I'll hit the highlights, the actually interesting stuff:

Notification Center

It's about freaking time. By far the worst thing about my iPhone that the notification system seems designed to systematically get in my way and help me forget about whatever it was that was so blasted important as to completely interrupt whatever I was doing. It's horrible.

Although they won't admit it, Apple has totally copied Android's pull-down notification system - plus notifications also appear on the lock screen. This is a very good thing. That's a great system and I'm really excited to finally have it... in the bloody Fall, I mean.

iPad and iPod touch people probably won't understand how important this is, but when iOS is your phone's operating system, notifications become a lot more important. I count on my phone as a calendar, email client, and messaging system. Having all this stuff as well as app notifications laid out in a nice way rather than a bunch of apps with number badges scattered across pages will be a very welcome change.

Reminders

I can't tell if this will be a useful feature or not. I like the idea of using my iPhone as a to-do list. I've tried a bunch of apps for it but none of them seem to quite do it for me. I think the improved notification system will help more than Apple building in a do-to list app, but I'll give it a try anyhow.

Twitter

Last year there was a rumor going around that Apple was going to build Facebook into the iPhone. I never gave any credence to that particular rumor. Similarly, I would have been skeptical of any rumor saying that Twitter was going to be baked into iOS 5. This is a surprising feature, though again, not one I feel strongly about. I have a Twitter account, but I am continually baffled as to why I continue to use the service. That said, the integration looks cool for those who are power Twitter users.

Camera & Photos

There are some minor enhancements to the default photo app. I generally use Camera+ unless I feel the need to use HDR. Speaking of Camera+, one new feature is the ability to use the volume-up button as a shutter button. Camera+ was infamously banned from the App Store last summer for trying to sneak that feature into their app. I wonder how the folks at Camera+ developer TapTapTap feel about this?

iOS 5 also adds some basic photo editing abilities like cropping, red-eye removal, and an auto enhance button. I generally use Camera+ for editing as well so there's nothing here that looks exciting.

Safari

Safari's getting a much-needed improved feature set. Finally the browser has tabs. A new feature called Safari Reader looks very compelling. Basically, when you're reading an article, you can tap the Reader button and Safari will reformat a web page to remove all the clutter and just focus on the article with nice formatting and everything. Great idea. Hope it works as well as demoed. That's a hugely practical feature. You can also save articles for later in a "Reading List."

PC Free

Finally! Over-the-air updates and wireless syncing! Y'know, that feature that Android has had for years. The Zune has had wireless syncing since 2006. You're a little behind, Apple. Nevertheless, it is a welcome update.

I hate syncing with iTunes. It is an arduous process to have to plug in my iPhone, load up clunky, bloated iTunes, and hope the sync decides to work. Often I run into some kind of issue. At the very least, it takes forever. Last week I was updating and I spend about 3 hours of my morning trying to get the sync to work. That should never happen.

Hopefully these cord-cutting features will help make syncing my iPhone a better experience. We'll see.

iCloud

I'm not sure I quite understand how iCloud's going to work practically. It sounds wonderful if you live entirely in Apple's walled garden. But then, if you live there I'd imagine you're a lemming who believes the world's a wonderful place as long as Apple tells you so. You probably believe Macs can't get malware too.

Anyway, iCloud seems like it might be a leap ahead of all of Apple's competitors. Of note, Google and Amazon recently rolled out cloud-based music services (although Google's is still an invite-only beta). iCloud is more than just a music service, however. iCloud sounds like Dropbox with some Apple pizzazz thrown in and closer integration with apps and its mobile devices.

It's free which sounds nice at first until you consider that Apple is getting far more out of the deal than you realize. iCloud will likely be very limited when you step outside of Apple-approved territory. 3rd party API were announced, but we'll just have to wait and see what developers are allowed to do with them.

There are two features I like a lot about iCloud: photos and re-downloading.

As someone who probably should have gotten the 32GB iPhone but didn't, I'm constantly running up against my phone's storage capacity. iCloud means I don't have to worry as much. If I delete apps and music worry-free because, I can always download it again free-of-charge. That, combined with wireless syncing sounds very freeing.

I've recently gotten into iPhone photography. Steve Jobs himself admitted in the keynote that getting your photos off the iPhone can be a hassle and he's right. Apple only admits their faults when they've got a fix. iCloud will solve the problem (hopefully) of me having to worry about deleting a photo that's not backed-up.

Even for those of us who just dip our feet in the Apple ocean, iCloud seems like it will offer some solutions to our 21st century, first-world problems.

I do have to rant a bit about the iTunes Match feature which goes through your media library, identifies songs you've ripped from CDs, and allows you to use iCloud with these songs just as you would with songs purchased from iTunes. Apple acquired this technology from Lala, a wonderful music site they bought last year and abruptly shut down. I still resent Apple for this. They might have made it up to me with this feature, but no. They've decided to charge $25 a year for it while Lala did it for free. That really burns me up. Still.

iOS 5 is definitely playing catch up with Android, however iCloud seems like a much better thought-out and more mature cloud offering than anyone else yet offers. We have to wait until Fall (whenever that means) to see for ourselves.

Okay, E3 starts tomorrow! Bring on the games!

The blog

2011-06-06T18:58:00.004-05:00

I expect, as my schooling has concluded for the near future, that I will be a more frequent contributor to the blog than I have been for the past year and a half.

Almost every time I sat down to write a post, I experienced an unease. The format of “the blog” as a cultural phenomenon seems imbued with a certain sense of narcissism with which I am uncomfortable. Most interactive social media has this attitude and indeed, Facebook and Twitter are constructed entirely about the premise that not only is what people think important but additionally, that it is in some way integral to other people’s lives. Why does what I have to say matter? How am I not participating in the greater culture of self-indulgence I so despise when I tweet, or update my status, or compose a post on blogger? The reason blogging seems more sinister is that the medium possesses a very real weight that does not necessarily exist in other forms of social media. A Facebook status can be composed flippantly. Tweets are hardly works of literature. People in some way expect that and the nature of those services promotes rapid-fire exchanges that are sometimes informative but more often meaningless. I tolerate Twitter and Facebook, not because I like the services, but because it is by partaking in the services that I feel connected to my friends and peers. I tried the whole “no Facebook” thing for a year and found that interaction with friends with whom I was not in immediate physical proximity fell dramatically. I therefore tolerate the flaws of the social sites because interacting with people is my drug and those sites provide my fix.

On the other hand, a blog post involves more thought, more writing, all while generating less expectation of response (perhaps this is a problem unique to this site), which makes it seem more self-indulgent. What purpose does composing a well thought out string of characters on a given subject serve, especially if only I am going to read it? I don’t want to shout into the void and add to the echoing cacophony. I want action to be meaningful. Meandering on a topic somehow related to current events, pop culture, or some particular policy issue simply because I find interesting and because I want the world to be able to know what I think doesn’t seem meaningful, at least not in the same way a private discussion on those same topics would.

Despite all my misgivings and my rather broad definition of narcissism—selfishness is an incorrigible aspect of the human condition and avoiding communication simply because I find it in some way self-centred is a bit puerile—I will still contribute, because despite all my misgiving and my rather broad definition of narcissism I think that the practice as a whole is a net good. Writing for a (potentially) large audience engenders a depth and breadth of thought that may not be present in private colloquy. Writing itself is something I enjoy doing and a blog format provides an outlet for doing that.

So here I’ll be, sharing incisive articles of my own device or perhaps shouting into the void. Either way, I’ll enjoy myself, and that’s all that matters to me, really.

Geek Week

2011-06-06T13:55:00.004-05:00

Two big events in the tech world are going down this week: Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). So yeah, for a geek like me, it's a big week full of interesting news.

Hopefully.

Apple is showing off the latest versions of its OSX and iOS operating systems as well as iCloud, a new service while many, many games will be showcased at E3 and we might possibly see Nintendo's new console.

I'll be blogging my reactions to the news all week as it comes out starting with my WWDC reactions later today. I must admit my biases and interests up front: I am an iPhone 4 owner and a PC gamer thus I have stock in news pertaining to those two things. That means I probably won't pay much heed to console exclusive titles or the OSX Lion update. I just don't care about those things. But I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting news besides.

Alright. I'm ready for Geek Week!

On Stranger Tides Review

2011-05-21T02:52:00.167-05:00

When Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was released in 2003, it surprised everyone who (understandably) didn't except much from a movie based on a theme park ride. I mean, that's a weaker concept than a video game movie and we all know how well those usually turn out. But Pirates proved a giant success with audiences myself included.

And then, of course, we got sequels.

Similar to the Matrix franchise, most agree that the first film was great, but the sequels were rather dividing affairs.

I really enjoyed Dead Man's Chest for it's inventive use of sea-monster mythology and still in-tact humor. By the third movie the franchise had become too bloated and wrapped-up in itself. At World's End, seemed to jettison most of the humor and lighthearted fun of the first film in favour of setting up a giant good-vs-evil battle between the evil, money-grubbing British and the nasty, money-grubbing pirates. Wait - who were the good guys again? Also there was a goddess who turned into a bunch of crabs or something... that was bizarre.

When I heard that Disney planned to continue the series after the disappointing third act, I had mixed feelings. By far the best decision they made with On Stranger Tides was to make it a standalone story like Curse of the Black Pearl. That's a really good thing since that's how adventures movies tend to work best (see Indiana Jones) and it means we shouldn't have as much plot baggage to carry over from one movie to the next.

Speaking of baggage, another welcome change in the fourth installment is the absence of Will and Elizabeth Turner since their story was one of many that was concluded in At World's End.

Blackbeard's ship the dreaded Queen Anne's Revenge.

On Stranger Tides follows Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, and Gibbs, along with some new characters on a quest for the Fountain of Youth. The new characters are a mixed bag.

Penelope Cruz plays Angelica, a love interest for Jack Sparrow. Let me just say this: Jack Sparrow should not have a love interest. He's a bloody pirate - a scalawag. That kind of commitment even to another pirate seems very out-of-character. But then we're constantly being told that Jack is somehow an ethical pirate. We never see him kill anyone who's not far worse than he is. Angelica's main problem is that she's kind of annoying. I never understood why Jack would find her more appealing than any of the other women he might have run into on his adventures. Why does Jack have genuine feelings for this women? Because the script says so.

Ian McShane, on the other hand, plays an absolutely fantastic Blackbeard. He's intimidating without acting over-the-top evil which makes him far less likable than say, Barbossa, who's theatrical on purpose. Blackbeard feels appropriately commanding and sinister - a real, genuine antagonist for the film. What I didn't care for [slight spoiler warning] was how the script characterized him as some wizard of the sea. His ship somehow has quite a few magical abilities. Magic is an established force in Pirates lore, but we are never told why Blackbeard has command of it. It made sense for a character like Davy Jones who was clearly dealt with the supernatural. I would have preferred Blackbeard to have just been an ordinary human with extraordinary talents for piracy. [end of spoilers]

A fun sequence in London that drags on for a bit too long.

My favourite new character was a missionary named Philip who was one of the most positive portrayals of a Christian on film that I've seen in a long time. Was not expecting that. Philip stands strong in face of Blackbeard's obvious evil and Jack's hedonism alike. As much as we are supposed to like and root for Jack, I found myself rooting for Philip just as much if not more. I won't spoil Philip's subplot, but I will say it's left open-ended making me wonder if he might return in possible sequels.

All the returning characters are a welcome sight although Barbossa and Gibbs don't get as much screentime as their characters (and actors) warrant. Jack is probably better written in On Stranger Tides than he has been since the first film. He's a real character again, not the walking punchline he had become in the last movie. Like in Pearl, he runs into the plot rather than inducing it or being at its center. That's a very good place for Jack to be as it turns out. It strikes the right balance as did the first film.

After a trilogy of Pirates films I wasn't expecting to be surprised. I actually was at several points in the film. The set pieces are fun. The mythological elements including mermaids and old school voodoo-created zombies are realized in interesting ways.

Blackbeard is very well acted by Ian McShane though
strangely characterized by the writers.

There are, unfortunately, several problems that keep it from being as good as the first or second films. It felt long to me which is never a good thing to think in a movie. That's probably because the film starts off with far too much action before getting to the plot. The pacing is better in the second half of the movie. However, I still felt like I was watching film that was close to three hours when in reality the runtime is was less than Pearl.

I don't think the film will hold up to repeat viewings like the original. There's just something a little fatiguing about it. It's a shame too. With a little trimming of the script here and there (or better yet: removing some unnecessary actions sequences) it might have been a much stronger movie. Still, a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean could have been much worse than On Stranger Tides.

I am looking forward to another film. As long as they keep this standalone serial formula going I think there's more life left in this franchise. Pirates 4 brings us the welcome return of Jack Sparrow. It is a more-than-satisfying summer popcorn movie. What else do you want from a Pirates movie?

That's the end of that...

2011-05-02T01:34:00.000-05:00

Happy May, everybody. I wish it looked more like Spring in my neck of the woods, but at least the end of the school semester is right around the corner.

So the big news right now is, of course, the death of Osama bin Laden. Am I happy he's dead? At first I was somewhat gladdened by the news, to be honest. I know that's not a very Christian response.

The truth is Osama bin Laden was made in God's (Yahweh, not Allah) image. He needed to know Christ just like anybody else. But I do believe that God is a God of justice. Whether we as fallen creatures ought to extract justice from each other through means of capital punishment is something we can debate (there is disagreement between the contributers to this blog). One thing's for certain: Osama bin Laden was a very lost soul who believed that he was doing good when, in fact, he was doing great evil.

Did Osama get what he deserved? Yeah, he did.

What saddens me is how this has once again brought to mind the tragedy that befell the country almost 10 years ago. While my patriotism has waxed and waned in the years since then, 9/11 nevertheless will always remain a formative part of my childhood. To me, this event gives that one some closure.

Another saddening thing: Twitter along with the internet in general seems predisposed to do nothing but make unfunny jokes about it. I hate to sound like a killjoy, but... this is such a sad and predictable response.

I've been through the #osama trending topic. While some people are merely reporting the news to their collective circles, about 2/3 of the comments are jokes, flippant comments, or otherwise irreverent chatter.

The best Tweet I found one the issue (and one of the few mature ones) was this:

"I'm not going to be happy about #osama being dead. Evil or just doing things the wrong way, God still loved him"

from @Erinsoap

I can't say I blame people for making deriding comments about bin Laden. I get that. But to I feel that it's making light of something that we probably shouldn't in this case.

I am someone who likes to make light of a lot of things because, to me, it's a good way of putting things in perspective. I treat a lot of things irreverently because I truly don't think they're that significant or worthy. Most of what the 24 hour news media likes to drum up as "news" is utterly ridiculous. We focus on absurdly stupid things and that makes us cynical or just bored so that when something like this comes around that genuinely matters we don't have any other response than irreverence.

One man is dead. Let us be thankful he can do no more harm. I, for one, am not thankful he is suffering eternally for serving the wrong god.

Whatever you believe about the issue, is it really too much to ask that we be adults about this? What are your thoughts on the death of Osama bin Laden? Is it a truly significant event or no big deal?

Science Still Alive: Portal 2 Review

2011-04-23T23:08:00.000-05:00

I have tried my absolute best to keep this review spoiler-free. Although I discuss the new elements of the game, I do not disclose any plot. I may have a spoiler-riddled discussion of Portal 2 at some point in the future, but for now you're safe if you haven't played the game yet.

There's a very good reason Portal 2 was my second most anticipated game this year. Actually, there are many good reasons. Foremost is the quality of the original game. It's not very often a game comes along that makes the kind of tidal waves in the gaming world that Portal did.

It was innovative. It was fun. It was hysterical. And the cake was a lie.

I was a bit surprised when they announcement for Portal 2 came along. I must admit I was skeptical whether the concept would work beyond a brief standalone game. I thought honestly that Valve had shot their wad with portal-based puzzles and passive-aggressive artificial intelligence. But, hey, it's Valve. They sure take a long time developing games, but it generally pays off.

Just one example of the immense set pieces in Portal 2.

Portal 2 is considerably longer than the first game. Most people report 8-10 hours of gameplay for the single player. That's about right. I'd say it's more like 7-9 for seasoned Portal veterans. In either case, it's at least twice as long as the original game which ran about 3 hours tops.

The increased length means there's a lot more time for developing an involved plot and more intricate puzzles. Without giving anything away, we meet a few new characters and, of course, experience the return of GLaDOS, who is indeed still alive.

In true Valve fashion, as much of the story is told through dialog and actions as through the setting itself. Aperture Laboratories look quite a bit different this time around. Let's just say the complex is more vast than the original game ever suggested. The diverse scenery helps relieve the fatigue of testing in those grayscale antiseptic chambers that make up the entirety of the first game.

The tests themselves are kept fresh and new by the addition of several new elements given hilariously silly titles such as "Thermal Discouragement Beams" (lasers), "Arial Faith Plates" (basically spring-loaded panels), and several liquid gels with various helpful properties such as portal conductivity or speed enhancement.

The new test elements are fantastic additions to the game.

The test chambers are the most fun part from a gameplay perspective. Despite the addition of these new testing elements, the game isn't overwhelmingly difficult. It's been incredibly well-designed with tests just difficult enough to make you feel smart when you solve them, but not so difficult that you give up.

Most of the times I got stuck were during the transitional portions of the game when you're going from one series of tests from another. These portions are the weakest part of the game. I was sometimes unsure where I was supposed to go next. When I finally figured out that I could portal over to that tiny little panel and then to fling myself up to that ledge, I felt kinda dumb for missing it. But in the chambers themselves I never felt this kind of frustration.

Writing was a huge part of the original game. No one expected it to be as funny as it was. Portal 2 is still very much a comedic experience. Again, the comedy is just as much derived from the environment as the characters' dialog. Both are well-crafted and generally work well. Only very occasionally did I feel the writers were trying too hard or that a joke fell flat. I wish I could put some of my favourite lines from the game here, but I don't want to ruin them.

Portal 2's a solid gaming experience that lives up to its unique predecessor in almost every way. Of course it isn't as fresh. By nature, a sequel can't be. My only real disappointment is that the game doesn't give any insights into what's going on in the Half-Life storyline. But it would be wrong to fault a game for lack of information about another game even one so anticipated as Episode 3.

In the end, the game plays great, it looks as good as any Source engine game has so far (which is to say dated, but with good art direction all the same.) The ending is fun, funny, and satisfying. That's about all any reasonable gamer could ask for. The replay value might be somewhat limited, but co-op mode is decently fun if you have a buddy ready and willing to play. Worth $50? Depends on how big a fan you are. If you haven't gotten it already you might consider waiting for a Steam sale.

Now let's hear something about Episode 3, Valve!

P.S.
I don't think it's giving anything away to say that, like the original game, Portal 2 has a Jonathan Coulton penned ending song and, in my opinion, it's just as good as the famed "Still Alive."

Portal 2 is Releasing Early... Maybe

2011-04-15T17:26:00.000-05:00

I've been busy this semester so while I've seen some of the very funny Portal 2 promos featuring J.K. Simmons, I had no idea Valve had launched massive Alternate Reality Game ad campaign around the game's imminent release.

There had been a timer counting down on the Aperture Science website which many people speculated was a countdown to an early release of the game. At 9am PST this morning the timer reached zero and that's not exactly what we got.

Even away from my big computers, I was anxiously awaiting the countdown.

The long and short of it is that we might see an early release of the game depending on how many people purchase and play 13 indie games through Steam collectively known as "The Potato Pack." The Aperture Science website now displays a different page which tracks progress toward an early release... and it's going quite slowly. It's slow enough that, while an early release is still likely, it probably won't be nearly as early as anticipated: probably Sunday or Monday.

I am rarely critical of Valve. They are one of my favourite game developers and I love getting games through Steam, though I have to say that teasing us like this is just mean. Sure, they are under no obligation to release the game early. But what they are doing here basically amounts to soft extortion. After I read last night that Portal 2 might get an early release I was really stoked. I had a few hours this Friday afternoon to take a break from my busy schedule and play it. I won't have any time on the game's scheduled release date. Boo hoo for me, I know.

Is it a big deal? Of course not, but after Radiohead's generous early release of The King of Limbs in February, I really hoped Valve would follow suit. Yeah, it'll still probably come out early, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really disappointed that the game didn't drop today.

Although I can appreciate Valve helping out indie developers like this (though since they get a cut of sales it's far from altruistic), it's just mean to dangle the game above our heads. It's finished. It's sitting encrypted on my hard drive. Why can't I, a loyal Steam customer, play it now instead of playing your silly waiting game? I'd like to play the actual game, please.

In other gaming news, World of Goo for iPhone came out on Thursday. It runs fine. It's the same great game I bought years ago for the PC. The glaring problem with playing on an iPhone is that your fingers obscure the screen while you play making it feel a bit clumsy. It's probably just because it's such a small device. I'm guessing the game plays a bit better on the iPad.

Also, Crysis 2 has been out for nearly a month. As my most anticipated game of 2011, I fully intended to review it and I still do when I get adequate time. However, the PC version is receiving a DirectX11 patch for the game to finally bring it up to par with other modern PC games. I think I'll wait until after that to review it.

World of Goo Coming to iPhone

2011-04-04T14:01:00.000-05:00

A couple years back I did a video review of a fantastic little indie game called World of Goo. I concluded my review by commenting that the game which at that time was only available for Mac, PC, and Wii would be great fun on the iPhone with a touch interface. I just want to say: I called this one.

Developer 2D Boy announced on their blog that they've submitted the iPhone version of the game to Apple for approval. An iPad version has been available for awhile, but despite the success of that device, they aren't nearly as widespread as iPhones/iPod touches.

Better news: for 24 hours after launch, the game will be on sale for just $0.99 which is not only worth it but also a killer deal. My only concern is the smaller screen of the iPhone might occasionally be a hinderance to gameplay. We shall see.

I'll just go ahead and embed the review here for those of you who don't know what the game is. I make my Nostradamus-like prediction at 4:56, by the way.

I own this game for the PC and I've played it before years ago so why am I excited about it? Well perhaps that calls for a post on mobile gaming...

The Long Form of Emotion: Smallville

2011-03-30T07:08:00.003-05:00

About a month ago, I was introduced to the television show Smallville. Now, I realize that this show has been around for close to ten years now, but I never got into it before. And, honestly, the only reason I watched it now is because someone insisted that I watch it.

For those of you who don't know, Smallville is an ongoing series that both explores and reinterprets the early days of the DC Comics superhero Superman in the form of a high school drama.

When I sat down to watch this, I was expecting campy, villain-of-the-week, teenage drama. And that's what I got. But I didn't expect the characters to be so utterly likable.

In fact, that's probably the best word that I can use to describe the series as a whole: likable.

The writing may not be Shakespearean, the special effects may be low-budget and old, and the acting might not be Oscar-worthy, but the whole package is an easily-digestible and pleasant-tasting treat. Like candy, but without the cavities.

Getting back to the characters, I want to reinforce their magnetic draw on me. This is the first time I've actually cared about the "who ends up with who" drama in a long time. Bonus points for making it difficult for me to predict the eventual outcome and working an element of tragedy into the situation for both the audience and a particular character.

Here's the setup (spoilers): at the start of the first season, we are introduced to our principle cast. Yes, it has all of the requisite, cliched elements. Why did you even ask? There's Clark Kent, our hero, the eventual Superman. Accompanying him are his two best friends, one of them black and the other a girl (PC quota met? Check!) Moments later, we encounter The Girl of His Dreams (TM), who he manages to embarrass himself in front of at every opportunity (awkward and predictable romance quota? Check!) Slight twist the girl drama in that the only reason Clark is a fool around her is because of her Kryptonite necklace (there are a lot of nice "in-jokes" for the crowd of Superman fans who already understand the mythology). Wrapping things up, we have the girl's boyfriend, the star quarterback of the school (of course).

All in all, I felt I understood what was going down in this town. If it wasn't for Clark Kent and his friendship with Lex Luthor (arguably the only original twist to this typical high school setup [and even then, I might be revealing my ignorance, because the "friends as rivals" setup is also fairly common in various genres]) I might have stopped watching after the first couple of episodes. But Clark was a likable protagonist (a rarity in this genre, at least for me) and his friendship with Lex was interesting and believable enough that I wanted it to work, even though I know it can't.

On a side note, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about when I say the writers made it difficult for me to predict the eventual outcomes of this show. They clearly are in this for the long haul from the very beginning (and knowing when I sat down that this show is 10 seasons long, I assume they can deliver on this "long-form" storytelling). Even though I "know" that Lex and Clark will not be friends at the end of things, I still felt a pang every time they faced a bump in their relationship and their trust in each other was threatened. I know it has to happen eventually, and yet the writers made me care anyway.

Same thing for the romantic angle. I know that they'll probably bring in Lois Lane somewhere along the way (like after he moves to Metropolis, or somesuch). But for now? In Smallville the town? There are other prospects for Clark's affections. And they each possess some impressive twists and turns.

Remember the quarterback from before? Well, after building him up as a jerk and the chief rival of Girl's affections, about midway through the first season we find out that he's actually not all that bad. Clark even befriends him to a degree. Yeah, I know, groundbreaking character depth this is not, but it's more than I expected out of the show.

As for the Girl, we have a few more-or-less predictable developments with her and Clark beginning to be friends and then each feeling that they think they could be more but she's constrained by her relationship with the quarterback. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Not important.

What is important is that Clark's gal pal, who is played as convincingly platonic through the first part of the season, clearly has feelings for him. And she is a much more likable character (for me) than Girl of His Dreams. So now, close to the end of the first season, a lovely little wrinkle gets thrown into Clark's life. As he puts it in one episode: "I have these two amazing friends who happen to be girls, and I don't want to mess up my friendship with either of them." It's a convincing emotionally difficult situation between a collection of likable characters with no clear winner or loser. You want them all to be happy because they're all just so darn likable as people, and yet you know that some (Lex and Clark) are doomed to fail and others (Clark and his girls) have no easily navigable solutions. As I said before, it's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a surprising level of depth and complexity that I didn't expect to come out of a prime time teen angst show.

Of course, the character drama is just one moderately-sized part of the show. There's a good variety of supernatural action and intrigue with the various super (and not-so-super) villains that emerge in each episode and the ongoing mystery of Clark's origin and the extent of his powers (yeah, okay, most of us know what Superman is capable of, but the writers and actors still do a convincing job of portraying Clark's first encounters with his own developing skills). But it's important to notice that, while all that stuff is fun, it's these characters that kept me coming back. This show has been going for ten years now, and I can see why. Characters that keep you involved for the long run. That's the long form of emotion in a nutshell.

A few weeks ago, I finished watching the first season. The writers did such a good job of mixing the conflicts together in such a way that they all culminated in the last episode, leaving me near-desperate to see the resolution and fallout from the characters' decisions. Unfortunately, the library here only has the first season, so I'm going to have to wait almost six months before continuing the story.

The agony I feel over that is a testament to my emotional attachment to these characters. If you haven't given the show a glance, and have even a passing interest in either Superman, teen drama, superheroes, or likable characters, I'd encourage you to check out the first season and see what you think. There are worse ways you could spend your time.

The Long Form of Emotion: Introduction

2011-03-23T19:02:00.002-05:00

Quick note, I responded to an element of Matt's post from last week about being a geek over at my other blog earlier today. You reach the post directly with this link.

Alright, today I want to introduce a series of posts that I'll be writing each Wednesday titled "The Long Form of Emotion." Inspiration for this series came from an article with a similar title on the PC gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun. You can check it out if you like at the above link.

What is this all about? Well, this gets into the whole "Obsession" thing that Matt mentioned in his post (linked above), but it's focused on a much more personal pleasure of mine: Series Writing.

I am a sucker for series'. Once you get me started on the first installment of a good series, stand back, because I'm about to burn through the rest of it in an all-consuming charge.

What is it about series' that I like? Everything is magnified, instead of distilled. When you read a standalone novel, or watch a single movie, you observe a very focused essence of a character and a series of events. We have introduction, conflict, growth, and resolution all thrown in together and it can be quite a rewarding whirlwind. However, it's still a whirlwind. There's only so much you can do in a single work before you exhaust your audience.

Contrast this with a series. There is a character or group of characters that we're going to be following for numerous installments, discovering more about them even as we watch them grow. Our conflict can be slower, more drawn out, or it can be more complex with multiple opposing forces weaving in and out of the plot. Resolution can come in stages, with certain plot threads tying up here and there while we build to the grand finale. Even the introductions can be staggered, as new characters and concepts often enter into the picture during the course of a long series, if only to keep things fresh and interesting.

In other words, a series is more like real life. The characters feel like they are inhabiting a world, rather than a specifically crafted stage for them to show off on. (Please note, I love standalone work as well. I realize I'm coming down rather hard on it in this post, but that's only because I love a good series more than a good standalone.) Some independent stories try to incorporate this sense of scope, taking us through a character's childhood, growth, adulthood, and sometimes even all the way up to his death. These are often ambitious, literary pieces that would likely be handled as a series if ever converted out of their original form. Indeed, some of them are perhaps better considered as a series rather than a single piece, if only so that you can approach it in chunks.

Regardless, the series has one other advantage that I find worth mentioning. It is what I have come to term "the long form of emotion." At its most basic, this term refers to any form of entertainment that maintains your emotional involvement beyond the moments you spend digesting the media.

In translation: if you're thinking about it when you don't have it on, that's long-form emotion. Now, to narrow it, we're going to say that if a form of entertainment keeps you thinking about it at least a month after you have completed said media (whether it's after watching a movie or reading a book or finishing a video game, etc.)

Now, this is a rather flexible definition that I can (and will) use to apply to a variety of stories, not just series writing. For the foreseeable future, however, I'm going to be honing in on this favored storytelling style of mine: the series.

It's Not Easy Being a Geek

2011-03-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

This is a long one, folks. I hope it is worthwhile. I have done my best to make it so.

Craftman's introductory post nicely teed up a subject which I have been meaning to write about for a while: geek culture. I feel safe in saying that we're all geeks to some extent or another here on the Vanishing Blog... except for J.D. who is, of course, a hipster (and, being a hipster, he will vehemently deny that label.)

The Escapist Magazine is a bastion of geeky/nerdy information particularly pertaining to video games and the culture around them. I was poking around that site when I found a particularly thought-provoking video from their movie critic who goes by the handle MovieBob.

I'm not a big fan of MovieBob. Although I find him occasionally interesting, he comes off as something of an elitist to me. Also, he is coming from worldview diametrically opposed to mine. He seems to have no problem insinuating that those who disagree with him are small-minded. Plus, at the end of this video he basically says he'd like to be a supervillain.

But this isn't about MovieBob. Rather, it's about a point which he raises and discusses in the following video. Watch if you like though I will do a recap. Warning: there's some mild profanity and an aura of nerdiness about the whole video.

So the point I'd like to discuss why nerds and geeks are bullied or otherwise treated as outcasts in society. I think the terms "geeks" and "nerds" are unhelpful, however. They are uncertain and perhaps broad terms so let's define them.

I love this chart. It's seriously useful to whip out in a discussion of terms. That just shows how much of a geek I am.

Though this Venn diagram was probably intended as a joke, I find it helpful in explaining the essentials of what makes geeks and nerds worthy of those labels. Intelligence, obsession, and social ineptitude. In order of magnitude I'd say I have obsession, intelligence then a minor amount of social ineptitude. So I'm a geek, basically.

This is so very true.

What I would say makes me a geek is the fact that I'm concerned with a smaller number of things compared to your average person. I'm picky. I don't like that many things, really. I'm selective with my taste in film, television, books, music, etc. But the stuff I do like I really get into. Anything I don't get into I tend to berate.

I will attest to a certain amount of alienation from "regular people" - people who don't understand my obsessions or even accept that I have them. I have never understood why sports fans are tolerated in society but video gamers, comic fans, Trekkies and Star Wars nerds are shunned and looked down upon (MovieBob has a video about this as well). Being a gamer I could make an argument that gamers are "superior" to sports fans because we actually engage our brains and interact with the games we're interested in... but that's not my point right now nor do I necessarily buy that argument.

The point is geeks are not understood by mainsteam society. As much as nerd culture is on the rise with superhero movies and casual gaming bringing video games to the masses we are still very much on the fringe of society. I think there are three reasons for this.

1. Obscurity
Any time two cultures meet there is fear, distrust, misunderstanding and miscommunication. This is also true when subculture meets pop culture. When society meets geeks there is ignorance on both sides. Society has a built-up stereotype of geeks, nerds, comic fans, and gamers. Gamers are either violent, sick creatures or extremely lazy and anti-social. Nerds communicate entirely through mathematical and scientific metaphors while geeks communicate by referencing internet memes or maybe leetspeak. Yeah, it's true. I read it on the internets.

The problem with stereotypes is that they're never completely true but neither are they completely false. Only a closer look reveals the subtleties and nuances that stereotypes miss. Moreover, a closer inspection turns caricatured, stereotyped cartoon people into real human beings.

Geeks and nerds are really not that much different than sports fans or political junkies. We all obsess, we just obsess over different things. That is why I have begun to use the word "geek" like the word "buff." "History buff" could just as easily be "history geek" or "history nerd."

2. Fear
This is the point MovieBob highlighted in the video. He thinks people are afraid of nerds not because we are different but because we are better. We're smarter, more logical, more analytical, and more progressive-thinking. Is that true? Are we looked down upon because we are better?

This is my biggest area of contention with MovieBob. Better is relative. What do you mean better? In my experience smarter never necessarily equals better. Better is the comparative form of "good." Goodness is a concept that depends on one's moral, ethical, religious, and philosophical convictions.

Being a Christian, I think goodness has very little to do with one's intelligence or knowledge. In my experience, my own moral fortitude is often hampered by my analytical mind. I try to invent excuses to do things which I know to be wrong. I'm really good at making them sound like they have merit. I make them sound intelligent.

Here's a larger example: The Theory of Evolution. I'll say this right now. I don't believe it. It's not merely because I am a Christian. I think there are serious scientific problems with it. At any rate, evolution cannot be scientifically proven just as the existence of God cannot be scientifically proven.

There are a lot of "smart" people behind the Theory who insist it is scientifically sound. When confronted with problems in the Theory they make up some new ideas to justify it. This has happened many times since Darwin's initial thought. The problem is that Evolution is a foregone conclusion despite evidence to the contrary. Evolutionists are some of the most intellectually dishonest people out there even with their intelligence. But sometimes they do tell the naked truth like Dr. George Wald does in this quote:

"There are only two possibilities as to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God, there is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with only one possible conclusion, that life arose as a creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution."

My intent here is not to write a mini-essay on the flaws of evolution, however. My intention is to show that intellect does not lead to better people. In the Evolutionist community we see a whole group of people who willingly deceive themselves and others in order to escape a belief in God and thus an authority in their lives. They make the arguments sound intelligent, but it is farce.

I do this myself on a smaller scale. I make myself believe that my behaviour is less important to God than it really is. Why? Is that belief based on fact? No. I do it because I want to live in my own way. I twist my intelligence - God's gift to me - for my own satisfaction. Sometimes I wish I were a bit less bright and a bit more obedient. I think I would be happier that way. But God has made me who I am for His purpose. As Tolkien noted: that is not for me to decide. All that I can decide is what to do with the time that is given me.

Now I would like point out that intelligence is indeed a gift. Like most things, it is neither good nor bad but can be used for either end.

Back to my point about fear: while I don't believe that geeks and nerds are better because of their intelligence, I do think there is a general perception that intelligence means "better" which, as I have just argued, is wrong. There is also the fear of progress.

The geek community seems to be divided on the issue. On the one hand, we have the idea in geek fiction that science/magic brings about an "ascension" to a higher level of existence which is comparable to Heaven, Nirvana, or becoming a god/spirit being. So in that view technology (progress) is our salvation. But just as frequently technology leads to our downfall. This is the Terminator school-of-thought. See also: I Am Legend and the entire post-apocalyptic genre.

Either way, we geeks look at progress with a sense of awe and wonder rather than fear and disgust. Most normal people are a bit frightened of progress because it's change and we're all afraid of change in some form or another. Just think about the way the general public has reacted to any number of new technologies versus the way geeks have embraced them (sometimes to our detriment.) Since geeks/"intelligent" people are associated with progress we are subconsciously feared for being the promoters and catalysts of change.

3. Elitism
This problem is entirely ours. We buy the aforementioned lie that are superior and we act on that belief. Sure, a lot of nerds do fit the stereotype of the fat 30-something in his parents' basement playing World of Warcraft, but not as many as the general public likes to think.

More often, the nerd is that IT guy who's only goal in life seems to be making you feel stupid. He knows more about technology than you. He thinks his thinking is more "forward" and "progressive" than yours. He likes to believe he is open to new and different ideas. He looks down upon any behavior he considers Luddite.

Because we are not "accepted" or "understood" by society, we can give into the tendency to feel victimized. We then make up a reason for our victimization. The best light to cast ourselves in is that we are superior beings.

Like many lies, this one is based on a half-truth. It is true that most geeky/nerd people are a bit better with abstract concepts and ideas or analytical thinking. Our media and our culture reflect the fact that we embrace things the rest of society finds ridiculous, weird, or even distasteful. While the rest of society might be a little too narrow in its views, nerd culture is by no means superior. As I have argued above, progress does not necessarily equal goodness.

Even as a Christian with a "right" idea of progress (that is, conformance of all thinks to the likeness and purpose of Christ), I fall into the trap of elitism frequently. Where do I get the idea that my opinions are better than everyone else's? They might be stronger than many peoples', but not better. Not more right. It is a struggle. I'll be honest: I think there is a part of the nerd that enjoys confusing people; that enjoys losing them in our useless knowledge.

Being a geek isn't easy but not for the reasons MovieBob asserts. We are not better. Like everyone else, we struggle against our own vices. We are just as much to blame for our alienation as anyone else. We are not superior beings. We are fallen, failed, flawed humans trying to overcome our own shortcomings.

An Introduction

2011-03-01T07:50:00.002-06:00

Alright, so Matt threw down the gauntlet earlier today, so I really have no choice but to take him up on the challenge.

Hello, everyone. I'm actually going to write something this time.

As Matt said, I usually run my own blog, "A Craftsman's Journey", where I discuss elements of my work that I feel pertain to "The Writer's Life" (in between doing the actual writing, of course). It's mildly pretentious, highly personal, and designed to be marginally helpful to those who seek insight into the life styles of a young, ambitious writer.

I won't be talking about that here. If you have an interest in such things, please click on the above link. It might entertain you.

Here on The Vanishing Blog, I'm going to be tossing around thoughts and ideas about some of the other things I'm passionate about in life. These days, the majority of those things fall under the collective header of "geek culture," so I'll probably talk quite a bit about that. (If you're unsure of what that means, go ahead and watch this video by MovieBob from the online magazine "The Escapist." It presents a reasonable overview of all the things that generally fall under the "geek culture" umbrella, especially during its second half. [Minor language warning for Escapist Magazine overall, though they tend to keep it at a harsh PG or a light PG-13.])

In more concrete terms, I'll probably be posting movie reviews, movie re-reviews, game thoughts, convention write-ups, travel news, and the occasional bit of world news (speaking of which, has everyone been following the situation in Libya?, how about the potential government shutdown in the United States?, and superheroes! In Seattle!) However, that doesn't mean I'm going to avoid subjects like politics, history, religion, technology, and all the other great mysteries of life. It's just that I tend to gravitate to the prior list when I talk about things.

Alright, I think that's everything I need to say for now. I'm not going to commit myself to a schedule just yet, but it would be exciting if I could post something here once a week. Until then, however, thank you for welcoming me to the community.

-Craftsman

Rebirth (continued)

2011-02-28T23:59:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of this month I announced my intention to re-dedicate myself to the upkeep of this blog and that a real-life friend of mine who goes by the internet handle of "Craftsman" inspired me to do so with his own blog. Shortly after that, I received a message from him in which, among other things, he expressed his desire to join the Vanishing Blog as an outlet to post things which fall outside the scope of "A Craftsman's Journey." I am thrilled and honored that he's decided to join us here! Observant followers of this site may already have noticed Craftsman's name on our list contributors.

Of interest: back in 2006 when I started this blog, I invited two of my close friends to join me. One was J.D. who has been blogging with me since the beginning and is still here. The other was Craftsman who joined the blog under the username of tjmk but unfortunately never found time to post. Now here we are almost five years later. I've finally got the band together. Incidentally, the three of us wanted to start a band back then called The Vanishing Day, thus the name of this blog. The band never got off the ground, but at least the blog's still alive.

Are you reading this, Craftsman? Now you've gotta post something here for real!

Alright everybody. Looks like I'm doing okay getting back to this blogging thing... so far. Hope someone out there is reading. If not, I'm still benefiting. Happy March, everyone! Woohoo!

History of Film Reviews (Pt. 1)

2011-02-25T15:06:00.000-06:00

This semester I'm in a History of Film course. As the name implies we watch films weekly in this class. I was originally going to post full-length reviews of each movie, but I am already behind in that task so I will recap the films we've seen so far with mini-reviews.

I've liked most of the stuff we've seen which is odd because the last time I had a movie-watching class I really didn't care for a lot of those films. Typically History of Film courses start with old films and work their way to the present day, but this course is presented more topically so as not to put everyone to sleep with a bunch of silent films at the beginning of the semester. Here's what we've seen so far.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Dir. by Orson Welles

Genre: Drama

Unrated

Every film class watches this. There seems to be a popular counter-movement against this movie. You can't actually like it. Only stuffy critics like it. No one actually likes this movie - it's just that everyone has to say they do or else be kicked out of the elite film buff club.

Well I like this movie.

Really, I do! This was only my second time viewing it. The experience was definitely better the second time. The reason people hate this movie is because of hype. They're told it's the "Greatest Movie of All Time" or some such. Nothing can live up to that kind of praise. Teachers and critics who say that are setting the film up as a disappointment for regular audiences.

This being my second time watching the film I was better able to take in the intricacies of the film techniques. It really is amazing how well staged, performed, and acted this movie is. A lot of old movies feature hokey acting, but that is not the case here. The production design is giant in scale especially for the time in which it was made.

Much has been made of the cinematography and I must say the praise is well-deserved. The blocking (placement of characters and their movement within the frame) in the scenes is excellent. You don't often see blocking like anymore. In modern cinema we're too afraid to let the camera sit still for more than a few seconds. That's not to say the camera doesn't move in Citizen Kane. It does. Surprisingly it moves a lot and the movements are exceptionally well-coordinated.

The story and acting by Welles is, of course, fantastic. The movie does an excellent job covering the sweeping breadth of our protagonist's life. Kane is a complex character. At various times throughout the film we love, identify with, detest and pity him.

If you haven't seen this: do so. Don't go in with the attitude that you're going to see the greatest movie ever. Think of it as an old classic that is really, genuinely good.

Grizzly Man (2005)

Dir. by Werner Herzog
Genre: Documentary
Rated R: language, disturbing images

Grizzly Man is the story of naturalist Timothy Treadwell. To quote Buzz Lightyear, he is a "sad, strange little man." Treadwell spent many summers of his life in the Alaskan wilderness living amongst grizzly bears until the summer of 2003 when he was eaten by one of them. Poetic justice for a lunatic some might say.

The documentary is largely comprised of footage shot by Treadwell himself over his many summers in Katmai National Park. The footage shows us just how odd the man was. He seemed more at home with the bears than with people. He wanted to become a bear.

Director and narrator Werner Herzog although clearly not approving of Treadwell's actions does remind us that this crazy man was a human being no matter how odd or hilarious his behaviour might have been. Eventually we learn some of Treadwell's history and get something of an explanation about why he did what he did. The psychological exploration of the man along with the footage of him doing and saying crazy things are the most interesting parts of the film.

By humanizing a man many would consider mentally unstable or just plain stupid, Grizzly Man caused me to consider my own life. What separates anyone from "normal" and "crazy." Treadwell once led a "normal" life. He slipped over the edge and so could any of us if we allowed ourselves to do so.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Dir. by Spike Lee
Genre: Drama
Rated R: pervasive language, brief nudity, violence

I'll admit I was internally rolling my eyes when I heard we were going to be watching a movie about race. Though I acknowledge the issue as complex and still more of a problem than it should be, I still somewhat hold to the view that we need to stop talking about it so much. My problem is that I've never really seen racism first-hand and yet people talk and talk and talk about it. So to me it seems overblown. But I digress...

I was shocked - shocked that I actually quite liked Do the Right Thing. Of course it's trying to make a point about racism and it does this in a fairly elegant way.

The film is neither subtle its message nor presentation, but that actually works to its advantage. It isn't meant to be subtle. Stereotypes are on overdrive here. White cops, black out-of-work hoodlums, Asian business owners, Italian pizza joint operators, druggies, drunks, white supremacists, black supremacists... the gang's all here. Race relations are bad, bad, bad.

But Do the Right Thing explores larger issues than just race in America. It presents us with a case study of what happens when different cultures clash. In actuality racism has less to do with skin color, eye shape, or ethic origins and a lot more to do with what people believe; how they talk and function; and what customs they hold to.

This film shows that often one can have just as many or more disagreements with one's own "people" than with those of other ethnicities and cultures. The protagonist Mookie finds himself as odds with his black friends as often as with his white employer. Both of these characters are tying to bridge a difficult cultural divide. They know it's the right thing to do. This is very effective in making us root for them which is why the film's conclusion (which I will not spoil here) is even more effective.

Do the Right Thing is a tale of human nature the governing law of which seems to be "For every action there is an equal and opposite overreaction." It is a sad circle. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. No wonder Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. It is the only way to wage effective war on war itself.

And did I mention it features Samuel L. Jackson in an early role as a DJ? Well it does.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Dir. by Guillermo del Toro

Genre: Fantasy

Rated R: language, extreme violence, disturbing images

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish-language film about the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. And, yes, it's also a fantasy as seen from the perspective of a young girl, Ofelia.

Basically we alternate (often with little or no warning) from the horrors of real reality to the horrors of reality blended with an imagined fantasy... or may it's not imagined. I'm not entirely sure. The movie doesn't offer any clarity about that.

While the film is very well done I don't think it worked for me. It was too ambiguous in some ways and too straightforward in others. None of the characters are all that deep, not even Ofelia. The main antagonist, an army captain, is just straight-up evil. That's all fine. It's clever to have the most despicable monster be the one from the real world, but none of it goes anywhere or says anything in particular.

The film is not without merit, however. The production value is really good except for some of the CGI which is showing its age. I really liked the design of "Pale Man" a monster with the eyes in its hands (I debated putting a picture here, but decided that I'd let those who really want to see seek it out on their own). Wow. That was something. It gave me hope that a Silent Hill movie could be done really, really well (a good one, not the one they already made).

Overall it was dark and heavy but the violence didn't seem to have much of a point. If your movie's going to be violent: fine. I dig it. But have a bloody point otherwise you're just making a glorified horror movie. I think this was a glorified horror movie.

I was originally told that this movie was about a girl escaping from the horrors of war through a fantasy world of her own creation which was symbolic of her real world surroundings. I didn't really get that from the film itself. What I got was a lot of horror and weirdness, but not a lot of reason for it. Maybe that's the point. I don't know. Maybe I need more perspective on the Spanish Civil War. But I kind of doubt it.

Pan's Labryinth isn't bad, but neither is it very good. It's certainly nowhere close to the others on this list. It may be worth seeing (for those who can stomach it) simply for its creative art direction and character design.

Radiohead at Peace

2011-02-21T20:41:00.001-06:00

How great was last week for good music? Arcade Fire's The Suburbs won the Grammy for Album of the Year and we were blessed with a new Radiohead album - a day early even! Here are my thoughts on that.

Like no other band, Radiohead has the ability to transport my mind to another place. Their latest album The King of Limbs is a prime example of this phenomenon. Named after an old tree near the studio where they recorded In Rainbows, the album is a clash of electronic yet somehow organic soundscapes.

Sonically the album sounds like a cross between Kid A and Hail to the Thief but it's not as ambitious as the former and not as varied as the latter. In fact, The King of Limbs doesn't have much time to get varied although it does a good job with the time that it has. Radiohead's eighth "full-length" album runs less than 40 minutes.

The actual "King of Limbs"

If the album has any faults they are these: it is short and might very well be too subtle for its own good. This is not a good album for newcomers to pick up (that's rarely the case with Radiohead), but those who like the aforementioned Kid A and/or Hail to the Thief will likely be able to appreciate the album's beauty.

And it is beautiful.

Only "Morning Mr. Magpie" and "Little by Little" seem to have the typical accusatory, paranoid vibe the band is known for and even these tracks are fairly mellow for what they are. The rest of the album (aside from the instrumental "Feral") has a sort of tranquil beauty to it. This is particularly evident in the songs "Codex" which sounds like a spiritual successor to "Pyramid Song" and "Give Up the Ghost."

These songs suggest to me that Radiohead is more at peace than they have been for a long time. There is still some measure of chaos, uncertainty, and fear but this time around it is tempered with an equal measure of harmony, hope, and peace. That is fairly unique for a Radiohead album. When I listen to the album it has a calming effect on me.

Even though The King of Limbs isn't a musical revolution for the band, it might be a tonal revolution. It features some of the prettiest tunes the band's ever produced and, although short, every songs counts. Radiohead has once again shown themselves to be supremely capable of delivering great music. I hope we don't have to wait another three years for their next delivery.

Happy Pre-Order Day! ...And Valentine's...

2011-02-14T18:12:00.001-06:00

Dun, duh, da!

It's pre-order day! Two of my most anticipated pieces of media became available for pre-order today and I've dropped the cash on both.

First up is Radiohead's eighth studio album oddly titled "The King of Limbs." That certainly sounds fitting for a Radiohead album. We've known they've been working on new music for quite some time now but in typical Radiohead fashion they've announced the album only five days before actual release.

The cover art is our only clue as to the direction of the album as no track titles have yet been announced. I like the cover although it is quite unnerving at first. Radiohead seems to be on a tree kick lately. The "cover" to their last single release "These Are My Twisted Words" also featured twisted tree limbs. Interesting. I doubt that track will feature on the album but I suppose it is possible.

I expected the new album last year, in fact. 2010 came and went and there was no news. Radiohead likes too keep a lid on things now that they control the entire process of making and distributing their music. I'll post some thoughts on the album after it releases.

Similarly Valve Corporation likes to play things close to the chest. Although their last several releases have been exceptions to that rule. Portal 2 and its magically-extending release date have been public knowledge for about a year. Now the game is up for pre-order on Valve's Steam platform.

Feast your eyes on some pretty screenshots (click to enlarge):

Even though the Source engine is getting old, Valve has done a great job of hiding that fact by creating some beautiful environments. I can't escape the feeling that this game is going to be like ten times harder than the original. It is certainly much larger in terms scope and length. I have no idea where Valve will take the plot or how that might factor into their other games. *ahem*

WHERE'S EPISODE 3, VALVE?!

Also: Happy Valentine's Day to all whom the holiday might concern. Haters don't hate on it. Is it commercially-motivated? You bet. But the holiday has wonderful origins so don't let commercialism ruin it for you. Single people: I guess I can't blame you for hating it. Sorry.

Super Bowl Ad Recap

2011-02-08T23:44:00.002-06:00

I may be a little late to the punch on this one. Likely most people who really care have already gotten their fill of discussion about this year's Super Bowl Ads.

I am fully aware of what an ironic/pathetic commentary it is on our culture that we have just as much hype and discussion on the ads as the game itself (probably more). Are we a culture of advertising? You bet. But that's a topic for later discussion.

I enjoy watching ads for the same reason that people enjoy watching bad movies... or car wrecks. I like to analyse what goes wrong or at least laugh at it. On the flip side, every once in a while something creative and enjoyable slips through the cracks. Here are some of the commercials I actually enjoyed.

Volkswagen: "The Force"
I haven't heard of one person who didn't like this ad (now I probably will). The best part is, of course, the always-awesome Imperial March.

Motorola Xoom: "Empower the People"
Motorola turns the tables on Apple in this ad which hearkens back to Apple's famous "1984" ad for the original Macintosh. Sure, you might say they're piggybacking on Apple's original commercial thereby making this one less creatively inspired. Then you might say the same thing about Apple's original ad and the George Orwell book. The fact is that Apple largely owns mobile computing (smartphones and tables) in the U.S. right now. This ad does have some real resonance for that reason. Plus, I really like the visual aesthetic though I'm sure it wasn't directed by anyone as famous as Ridley Scott.

Bud Light: "Product Placement"
I have to give props to Budweiser's ad agency. They have for years now delivered consistently decent and occasionally really funny ads. Consistently decent might not sound that good, but it's a whole lot better than some. This one was fun.

Bud Light: "Hack Job"
I doubt other people found this as funny as me. I've grown up with a mother and two sisters who have watched an awful lot of HG-TV. I know exactly the type of show this is making fun of and they did a good job with the parody. Again, a lot of fun.

Audi: "Release the Hounds"
This was my favourite ad from this year. It's clever, funny, not insulting, and it sells the dang product. It's almost like... a commercial. Well done, Audi. This was by far the most creative thing aired this year.

On the downside the E-Trade baby made another appearance. I have never found those ads funny and I don't understand why everyone else does. And I am getting completely sick of the stupid, stupid, stupid Dortios commercials. They had a good one like three years ago, but since then it's been a constant stream of so-dumb-it-hurts. Finally, Pepsi, I don't even like your soda, but here's a free tip: hitting people with cans of it isn't a good way to sell the stuff. Any moron already knows that.

The White Stripes (1997 - 2011)

2011-02-07T23:52:00.000-06:00

Well by now most everyone who cares has heard the news. The White Stripes officially ended their career last Wednesday. They will no longer be making albums or performing.

I gotta be honest: that bums me out. Sure, it's always better to end something good while it's still good rather than drag it out until all the creative juices are gone. I absolutely believe in not diluting the brand or the art or whatever it happens to be. However, I never got to see the duo live and I really, really wanted to. Oh well.

As a little tribute to the band, I present my favourite song from each of their studio albums.

"Jimmy the Exploder" from The White Stripes (1999)
The first track on the first album gave listeners an idea of the wild ride they were in for.

"Hello Operator" from De Stijl (2000)
The dynamics on this song are killer. I love the pauses; the changes in volume; the way Jack throws in little riffs after the power chords each line.

"We're Going to Be Friends" from White Blood Cells (2001)
When Jack put down the electric and picked up an acoustic guitar the results were always good, but this might be the best of their acoustic numbers.

"Seven Nation Army" from Elephant (2003)
I'll admit this pick is really, really obvious. But this is the song that got me into the White Stripes and I'm sure that's the case for many other fans.

"My Doorbell" from Get Behind Me Satan (2005)
"My Doorbell" is pure fun. Piano rock at its best. Even people who don't like the band enjoy this tune.

"300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues" from Icky Thump (2007)
This song goes from calm and laid back to suddenly chaotic and wild. In that sense, it seems to represent the band's music as a whole. A bit disjoint perhaps. It has its own kind of beauty and grace.

Meg, Jack... it's sure was fun. Thanks for putting some soul back into rock music.

Rebirth

2011-02-02T10:56:00.001-06:00

How many posts in the past have I made apologizing for lack of updates after a long absence? I'm too lazy to actually find out, but I'm guessing quite a few. It's a cliche because it's true that someone starts blogging very excitedly but loses their fever over the course of time. That's me for sure.

I hope anybody who actually reads what we post up here has noticed the recent resurgence in number of posts. I am going to try and make a concerted effort to keep at this blogging thing for a couple of reasons.

First, I believe it's good for me. It's a hobby that helps me immensely as a thinker and writer. I ordinarily lack the motivation to keep up my writing. Ultimately the most important thing about being a writer or any other craft is to do it. Blogging provides me with a public platform for that purpose.

Second, I have recently been inspired by a writer friend of mine who has just recently committed to regular blogging. I have been following his blog for some weeks now with great interest. Yeah, that's probably just because he's my buddy, but still...

Check out his blog entitled "A Craftsman's Journey" which contains his thoughts on writing, movies, and a chronicle of his current year-long quest to write 500,000 words in a year. He's also studying abroad in England this semester.

Seriously. Check it out. It's a good blog. He's awesome.

I think I am now going to refocus my blogging efforts. I have got it in my head that only certain things are fit for posting and thus I rarely do so. If I want to maintain this online presence and help myself become a better writer I've got to tear down that mental barrier.

The posts you'll get from now on probably won't seem that different. As I said, it's a mental barrier. One thing I really don't talk about on this blog is my personal life. The reasons for that are many. While I still won't be posting and telling you about my day, from now on I plan to be a bit more open to posting interesting, pertinent events from my life. The internet is pretty much real life now, isn't it? (I should explain that. Maybe a future post.) It would be hypocritical of me as a technology enthusiast to keep this barrier between my real, actual life and the internet.

At any rate, expect to see more posts and if you don't... well I guess I'm a failure or something. Later.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

2011-01-27T19:56:00.001-06:00

"If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don’t."

I am just that kind of geek who not only enjoys Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series but, in fact, considers it a work of hilarious genius. For whatever reason, I had never been interested in Adams other series Dirk Gently, a two-book-long mystery series. When presented with the audiobook read by the (sadly) deceased author himself, I finally decided to take a look.

As I've heard it, Adams fancied himself a performer who got stuck being a writer. He apparently longed to play his wacky radio, novel, and television characters rather than sit behind the scenes and write them. Where Adams really did get to perform was on audiobook recordings. If you get the chance to listen to an audiobook recorded by Douglas Adams: do it. The exuberance, hilarity, and brilliance of the man comes out in his reading particularly since it's his own work.

Now as for Dirk Gently in particular... it is inevitable that my review must compare this book to Hitchhiker's. That is, after all, what everyone knows if they know anything at all. It is a bit difficult to review something like this, however.

Dirk Gently rather ironically and paradoxically is more and less mundane than Hitchhiker's. It is set in what was modern-day London (modern when the book was written in 1987) and features no intergalactic hitchhiking. The original cover of the book described it as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic" which is pretty much accurate.

At the beginning of Gently we are introduced to several seemingly divergent and unrelated characters and events. But it's Douglas Adams writing and the book as the word "Holistic" in the title so we know they aren't. Adams adeptly ties these elements together in a way that had me laughing and saying "that's brilliant" often in the same moment. A noteworthy feat: the book several times got me to laugh out loud which is a rare occurrence when I am alone.

Author Douglas Adams

I spent some time looking for the mystery and the detective who was supposed to solve it. In fact the titular character doesn't enter the story proper until roughly half-way and I'm still a bit confused as to whether there was actually a mystery.

It found the divergence in tone interesting. Some elements of the story seem like they could fit perfectly well into Hitchhiker's with almost no alteration while others just seem incongruous at first. Some of that is due to Adam's style, other things are due to the way in which the story is presented. I have no doubt the whole thing would make much more sense to me if I listened to it again.

Criticism might be leveled at the plotting and some extensive ramblings about computer technology which only has a little to do with the plot. Adams was a technology enthusiast and that certainly shows. There is also one character who (literally) fades out of the story and isn't given a satisfactory ending. I hate it when critics nitpick comedies though. If they are funny then they've done their job as far as I'm concerned. Anything else you get such as good plotting, characters, ideas, and the like are merely icing on the cake.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is an enjoyable, clever book. Most of it made me laugh, but some of it caused me to think. Very hard. To me that is Adam's strength in writing. Clever description, clever story, clever humour, clever ideas.

I may have to pick up the sequel: The Long, Dark Tea Time of the Soul sometime as well.

American Standard Version

2011-01-27T12:38:00.002-06:00

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”

The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is one thing you still have to do. Keep all your possessions and be glad you are rich, for you will also have treasure in heaven. It is unnecessary to follow me. Stay at home and be comforted by your wealth, with which I have blessed you.”

When the man heard this he was elated, for he was very rich.

When Jesus saw the rich young ruler's happiness, he said, “How convenient it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! In fact, money is evidence that God loves you and has destined you for heaven.”

we are not yet free

2011-01-17T14:08:00.003-06:00

my college does not celebrate martin luther king jr. day. it is only fitting that an institution that prides itself on its america-loving christian freedom would not stop to recognise one of the central figures to advance the cause of liberty in united states' history.

from this american life:
Girl: Dad, what's Christmas?
Dad: That's when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Girl: Who's that?

The father was not particularly religious, so they went out and bought a children's Bible and read stories about the early life of Jesus. The girl loved the stories. She was particularly impressed with Jesus' message of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. A couple of weeks went by and the girl and her father drove past a church. In front of the church was a giant crucifix.

Girl: What's that?

The father winced a little and realised he never finished the story about Jesus. He told his daughter that Jesus' message of love was so frightening and intimidating to those in power that they felt threatened and they killed him. She thought about that.

A couple more weeks went by and the girl was on holiday from school because it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The father and the girl went out for breakfast and there was picture of Dr. King on a place-mat.

Girl: Who's that?
Dad: That's Martin Luther King, Jr. He's the reason why you have off school today. We're celebrating his birthday.
Girl: What did he do?
Dad: He was a preacher.
Girl: For Jesus?
Dad: Yes, for Jesus.
Girl: What was his message?
Dad: He told everyone they should be kind to one another no matter what the other person looked like.
Girl: That's like Jesus' message.
Dad: Yeah, I suppose it is.

The girl thinks for a moment.

Girl: Did they kill him too?

Game Anticipation 2011

2011-01-12T08:23:00.001-06:00

Well for some reason at the beginning of every year I feel compelled to look through Wikipedia's "Year in Film" and "Year in Video Gaming" pages to remind myself what's coming out in the upcoming year. I'll do a post on the films I'm interested in later. Now is time for games!

2011 looks very bright for gaming. Wow. This year may rival 2007 in the quantity of quality games coming out. I suppose we'll have to see when they actually come out though. Naturally my life is getting busier, more complicated, and more real leaving me with less time for gaming. And that's alright. I'll be selective. I'm not planning on playing all these games. Some I am interested for technology, some for story, and some for their relevance to the gaming subculture. Here's the stuff I found intriguing.

My Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2011

10. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
I have almost completely give up on Wii games. Even if they're good, they are ruined by awful controls. The only really good Wii games are ones that don't use or don't need to use the Wii's awful motion controls. But a Zelda game...? You've got me interested. It's a long shot (no pun intended) but maybe the Wii Motion Plus can make this game's combat somewhat fun or at least not get in the way too much. But then again Nintendo allowed Metroid's perfect track record for great games to be ruined last year. Why should Zelda be any different?

9. Star Wars: The Old Republic

I hate MMORPGs. The Old Republic is an MMORPG. Why does it interest me? Because it's BioWare's first attempt at an MMO. BioWare. That name has become synonymous with quality RPG experiences. Plus it's got Knights of the Old Republic's pedigree. Even those who malign most Star Wars games as obvious cash-ins thought those games were worth their salt. It will be interesting to see what The Old Republic does in the online gaming market if nothing else.

8. Dragon Age II
I really enjoyed the story and atmosphere of the first Dragon Age game. The difficulty, however, drove me insane (the PC version is supposedly harder than console versions). At the end of the day it just wasn't that fun when it came to combat. I'm not sure if the combat's changed much, but other developments have me interested. A fully-voiced main character is a nice addition. The game takes place over the span of the decade so choices made in the beginning reportedly have far-reaching consequences by the end. It's player choice affecting story that really makes BioWare's games compelling and they do it better than almost anyone.

7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I am interested in this game for one reason and one reason only: the engine. Fallout 3 made me a fan of that series big time. And seeing how Bethesda Softworks owns the license to make Fallout games it's a safe assumption that Fallout 4 will run on the new Skyrim engine. Oblivion and Fallout 3's notoriously buggy implementations of the Gamebryo engine left a lot to be desired so here's hoping for improvement. I'm not ruling out the possibility that Skyrim itself might be great, but I was not impressed by the generic fantasy vibe I got from the teaser trailer. Also, what's with "sky" in the titles of fantasy games this year?

6. Rage
Rage is the latest game by id Software the legendary company behind Doom. I'm mostly interested to see what this creative team has come up with in the many years since Doom 3. Rage has been described as an FPS and a racing game with RPG elements. Very odd. Sounds potentially awesome. Plus it all runs on id's new id Tech 5 engine.

5. Duke Nukem Forever
I have never played a Duke Nukem game in my life, but I think the entire gaming subculture is holding its collective breath to see if this really... finally comes out. For those unaware, Duke Nukem Forever has been in development since 1997. In 2009 the studio developing the game closed and everyone thought the game was really, finally dead. Later that same year, however, developer Gearbox Studios picked-up the nearly-finished game and decided to actually get it out the door. We'll see if it really comes this year. No specific release date has been given. I'll believe it when I see it.

4. Batman: Arkham City
Yes, please. Arkham Asylum was one heck of a game. Although based on the cartoon TV series, I felt as awesome as Chris Nolan's Batman while playing. The combat was awesome. The stealth was intuitive and challenging. The atmosphere was thick and rife with detail. I'm hoping to see my sole complaint about the original game fixed with Arkham City: an improved story would be nice this time around. Something a little less played-out than super soldier mutants would be a great place to start.

3. Portal 2
C'mon, it's Portal. Do I even need to explain? Can you just imagine I made a cake joke and move on? Seriously though. I was skeptical about Portal 2 at first. The original was an instant classic, but it was such a short game that a full-length sequel seemed a challenging prospect. By the look of things, Valve has overcome that challenge. Well of course they have. Portal 2 seems to be a much more in-depth game. It looks downright hard, actually. I have just one question: WHERE THE HECK IS EPISODE 3? Sorry, I have to do that every time I mention Valve.

2. Mass Effect 3
Congrats to BioWare for taking three spots on my most anticipated list. I guess that makes them my new favourite developer ahead of Valve (it might help them if they would release a certain HALF-LIFE game before I'm 60). Although ME1 had a few design flaws and ME2 felt like it was shuffling around looking for a real plot, the Mass Effect games have been absolutely a blast to play. I cannot deny that. Judging by the trailer, ME3 looks to be a highly memorable and very exciting final chapter. Since this is the final game in the story arc and there's no sequel to import save data into, I'm really hoping to see some diverse endings.

1. Crysis 2
I love Crysis. It is the quintessential video game. You are a one-man army in a futuristic supersuit and you own everyone. Yeah! That's what video games are about. To boot, Crysis had graphics imported from the future. The 2007 game still looks better than a lot of stuff out there. This time around the setting is an alien-infested New York. And... that's about all I know. It's all I need to know. The game speaks for itself. Have a look at this trailer. You'd have to be a good liar to tell me it's not awesome.

2010-12-25T23:11:00.002-06:00

I.
a baby enters the world bathed in blood
loudly protesting his circumstance
with lungs that cannot be emptied
his eyes roll back
and his mouth opens very wide

II.
a young boy laughs with crushing vigour
dreams of big and boisterous things
time gives no glance and moves
on

III.
compromise

IV.
an old man coughs
the cold air drawn in
rapid
tatte
redga
sps
spit beads on his lips

V.
a man on yellowed sheets sees death
and whispers two words
well met

Where is SimCity 5?

2010-12-18T16:19:00.000-06:00

I love SimCity. Not Spore. Not the Sims. Not My Sims: Pets. None of that junk. I love SimCity!

Along with RollerCoaster Tycoon, SimCity got me hooked on simulation games. Recently, I finally gave in and bought the SimCity 3000 port for my iPhone. It works surprisingly well. I’m counting on it keeping me entertained on a few trips.

This sparked me to go dig up my old SimCity 3000 Unlimited disc since that’s the latest version of the game I own for PC. I never got into SimCity 4 because it was infamously buggy and the way roads and zoning were implemented ruined the game for me.

So I popped in SC3K. Thankfully it runs just fine on Windows 7 64-bit. I was kind of surprised about that. Equally surprising: the game is just as fun now as it was ten years ago. Some old games get nostalgically surrounded by a fuzzy pink aura in your memory and are quite disappointing when you
play them again, but not this one.

I did have one technical issue: there are only a handful of resolution options available and, of course, none of them are widescreen. I actually had to change my color setting to 16-bit to get the game to run in a window instead of inelegantly stretching to fill my 16:10 monitor.

This got me thinking. Why is there no new SimCity game in development? The last new game in the series, SimCity 4, came out in 2003 (SimCity: Societies and all those spin-offs don’t count.) Isn’t it time for a new game? I would love to play a well-designed current-generation SimCity!

Why am I complaining when I just said how much I still enjoy SimCity 3000? Shouldn’t I be happy with that? A sequel probably wouldn’t be that great anyway, right?

I thought that Civilization II was the greatest Civ game ever until Civ IV came out (I'm still not sold on Civ V). Why does a classic series like Civilization get well-thought-out refreshes while SimCity, a series which is arguably even more classic, stagnates and gets milked for ports to the iPhone and Nintendo DS?

I have two theories. Either Maxis/EA is content to release keep raking in the cash with new Sims games and ports or they are in development of a new game that we don’t know about yet. I’m hoping it’s the latter. I kind of doubt it though. Secretly developing big name titles isn’t the way Maxis (and especially not EA) rolls. I mean, this isn’t Valve we’re talking about… WHERE’S EPISODE 3, VALVE?

Maxis, EA, c’mon people. Get off your laurels and make a great new SimCity game worthy of the franchise name and my fifty bucks. Oh, and don’t screw it up with stupid DRM and reliance on user-made content either.

The Suburbs

2010-08-17T14:49:00.000-05:00

Buy this album!

See it? Go buy it! iTunes, Amazon, Walmart - whatever! Just go buy it. It's great.

Okay, okay. Not everyone's going to like it, obviously. There's no music that everyone likes. Not even all Arcade Fire fans love this album. But I do. All I can do is share my opinion, right?

On my first listen, I liked about half the songs on the album. Indeed, there are some slower, more subtle songs that take a few concentrated listens to "get" but when I did, they became some of my favourites. The only song on the album that I don't absolutely love is "Rococo" though it is by no means a bad song.

Funeral was a picture of childhood. Neon Bible went off in a different direction with a bemoaning look at current events. The Suburbs seems like the true successor to Funeral. The Suburbs is about the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

The opening lyric "In the suburbs I learned to drive..." recalls a similar imagery used in the song "In the Backseat" from Funeral: "I've been learning to drive my whole life." There are all kinds of hints that in The Suburbs we're no longer children, but neither are we grown-ups yet. The themes of transition, longing, and uncertainty are most prevalent in the songs "Ready to Start," "Empty Room," and "Sprawl I." About half the album is seen from the perspective of the adolescent while the other half is an adult looking back at his youth as in the songs "The Suburbs," "City With No Children," and "Suburban War."

When I first heard the name of the new Arcade Fire album, I thought to myself, "well that's perfect." Having grown up a suburban kid all my life, this album really speaks to me. Not only that, but the music is fantastic. Although it's nothing new for the band, there's a lot of really beautiful strings used on the album. What's more surprising is the amount of electronic influence evident in songs like "We Used to Wait" and especially "Sprawl II" which has an 80s vibe (surprisingly that's a good thing.)

For Arcade Fire fans' reference: this album is right up there with Funeral. And remember, Funeral was my second-favourite album of the 2000s. For everyone else's reference: this is simply one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life... at least right now. I've been listening for two weeks which is generally the time it takes for me to form a lasing impression.

Though I can't explain exactly why, The Suburbs is sometimes so stunningly beautiful that it makes me want to cry. This is great art.

Your Mind is the Scene of Confusion: Inception Review

2010-07-24T13:18:00.000-05:00

I have been extremely busy this past week so I am terribly late with a post on Christopher Nolan's latest film Inception. Here's my quick review:

Yeah. It's good. What can I say about it that hasn't been said already? I'd agree with the general praise that's been granted it: it's intellectual, exciting, creative, and it's not a sequel, remake, or adaptation. Those things are great, but don't they don't necessarily make a great film.

What's impressive is Nolan's literal exploration of what it is to dream and how he weaves those experiences into a compelling narrative. And it looks amazing as well. Like in his previous films, the CGI was kept to a minimum resulting in a very realistic looking film despite being set in dream spaces.

The cast is excellent which is good because a lot of the supporting roles are underdeveloped and would be forgettable if the actors didn't own the roles as they do. Only two of the main characters can be said to be truly well developed - the rest are simply glorified catalysts. Perhaps that's by design.

The protagonist Dom Cobb provides an emotional and dramatic center to what would otherwise be just a thinking man's action movie. We also get a glimpse into the psyche of Robert Fischer, the victim of the mind crime. To say much more about the plot or characters would be a disservice to those who haven't seem the film yet.

If you still haven't, I highly, highly recommend it. But like all Nolan's films, the more you pay attention, the more you'll get out of it. It's not passive entertainment. I demands a thinking audience. I generally have to see his movies twice to get the most out of them and Inception is a prime example of that.

If you are a fan of Nolan's other films you will undoubtedly enjoy this one. As some have pointed out, it is the logical culmination of everything he's done until this point. If you simply like movies that challenge you to think, Inception will promote some serious thought. It will confuse you in a good way. If, on the other hand, you are looking for simple popcorn escapism, then you should probably go see the A-Team or Knight and Day, because Inception will mess with your mind just as it does with its characters.

When I get some more time, I'm going to do a more in-depth spoiler-filled post in which I will discuss some of the theories that I've been thinking about as well as a discussion of the various elements at play in the film.

This will really mess with your head.

Toy Story 3

2010-06-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

Fifteen years ago Toy Story was released. It was one of the first movies I remember seeing in a theatre. I was only 6 years old.

Four years later, the excellent sequel came out.

Last Friday, I went with a large contingent of friends to watch the final part of the Toy Story trilogy. I wasn't sure what to expect. The trailers didn't look promising. Most of my friends agreed. Nonetheless, we all spent our $10.50. Even if it didn't turn out like I hoped, how bad could it be? It's still Toy Story after all!

Of all my friends, I am probably the harshest movie critic and I do not go easy on children's movies. I was one of the few people who didn't like Pixar's last effort Up despite the universal praise it got. So even though I really, really wanted to like this movie, I was prepared to grade it harshly. Things weren't helped by the attached short "Night & Day." Though it was clever and creative I didn't really like it. But if you ask me, the last good Pixar short was "Lifted" attached to Ratatouille.

Then the film itself started and my critical mood quickly melted away. I won't spoil anything in particular, but I will say that the opening scene is awesome. It does everything necessary for the opening: reintroducing the characters while building a bridge between the older films and this one. Did I mention it's really funny? It's really funny.

Actually, this might be the funniest Toy Story of them all. Maybe that's just because I get all the subtle jokes now that I'm older. Maybe it's because all the homages to the previous films work. Referencing the films that came before is a frequently abused trope of sequels, but Toy Story 3 amazingly makes all the references work by building on them. The opening scene is a perfect example of that.

Speaking of referencing the earlier films, many of the themes of the second film are re-introduced here and made a central part of the plot. What will happen to the toys now that Andy has grown up? That's the central question of Toy Story 3. And while that set-up makes for a fun adventure with lots of laughs along the way, it's also cause for more than a few emotionally poignant moments.

I'm man enough to admit it: this movie made me cry. Several other guys my age admitted they did as well. It's crazy how something as seemingly fake and unnatural as a movie about toys can be so emotionally gripping. And not only a movie about toys, but the second sequel to said movie... made in a computer. You can't get much more artificial than that. Then again, aren't toys themselves like that? They're mass-produced in some factory in Asia - the complete opposite of "personal." But to kids, they are are precious.

As I watched this film I couldn't help being overwhelmed by nostalgia. I found my inner critic was struck silent not simply because I was watching a new Toy Story movie, but because that movie was genuinely good.

Pixar made this film not for the kids of today, but for those who were kids when the first movie hit theatres 15 years ago. I enjoyed it much more than my 11 year old sister. Now Pixar has grown up and we've grown up. The movie is reflective of that while still being wholly faithful to the spirit of the first two movies.

This is probably the best sequel I could have asked for. As the movie concluded Friday night, just two days after my 21st birthday, I couldn't help thinking that my childhood had officially come to a close. In many ways, this is the most personally meaningful film I have ever seen.

Thank you, Pixar.

Matt's Top 10 Albums of the Decade (2000 - 2009)

2010-02-06T17:36:00.008-06:00

This past decade, the digital revolution has changed how we listen to music. Ten years ago I took a portable CD player and a case of discs on car trips. Now I have all that functionality and much more in pocket-sized device. Amazing.

Digital music has changed how we buy music. Ten years ago, iTunes didn't exist. Now it is the world's largest seller of music, digital or physical. I bought my last CD two or three years ago.

Some people speculate that digital music will eventually kill the album format. Artists will instead opt for shorter, more frequent releases - perhaps regularly releasing singles. I hope and pray that won't happen.

The album is a wonderful format. Like a good book or movie, a good album has a central theme or feeling. A good album isn't a collection of good singles; it's not even a collection of good songs. A good album is a series of songs which play off and compliment one another contributing to the work as a whole. This involves pacing, variety, and creativity in each individual song. In other words, a good album is greater than the sum of its parts.

I decided to make a list of my "Top 5 Favourite Albums of the Decade" almost six months ago. I quickly discovered I couldn't narrow it down that much, so I've gone with a more traditional "Top 10" list. Here are the rules:

1. Only one album per artist
2. Must be full-length albums (no EPs)
3. Must have been release between 2000 and 2009 (obviously)

I'm sure I will look back on this list in the future and wonder why I picked some of these albums. It is inevitable. But I am human. I reserve the right to be inconsistent. For now, these are my favourites.

^10. I See Things Upside Down

Derek Webb
2004

“I’ve got faith in the bank and money in my heart”

I would be remiss if Christian singer/songwriter Derek Webb did not make this list. I have long been disillusioned with the Christian music scene for lack of creative innovation and imitation of the secular music business. There are a few exceptions, however. Three of them made my list.

Actually, I say Webb is a “Christian musician” but he’s something of a pariah in the CCM world. His usage of “strong language” has gotten him in trouble with Christian bookstores on more than one occasion. But I don’t have time to discuss that controversy here. Beside, those were different albums.

Despite some Christians’ dislike of Webb’s approach, I would argue that he, in fact, writes better, more honest, more Christian music than the likes of Mercy Me and Casting Crowns. Webb has taken Matthew 7:3’s admonition to fix one’s own faults before others. His debut solo album (he’s also a member of Caedmon’s Call) She Must and Shall Go Free was a criticism of the modern American church.

I See Things Upside Down carries Webb’s message further and moves from folk-influenced acoustic rock to more broad and artful musical territory sometimes bordering on the experimental. What remains unchanged are his brilliant, beautiful and challenging lyrics. Through them we are shown how we as Christians, as a church; as a culture do indeed have things backwards.

The title comes from the album’s final song: “And I give myself to what looks like love//and I sell myself for what feels like love//and I pay to get what is not love//and all just because I, I see things upside down.” We do indeed. I cannot say the things Webb says in this album any better than he, so I won’t try.

I don’t always agree with everything Derek Webb has to say or how he says it, but I appreciate what he’s doing and for now, at least, he seems to be the only one doing it.

^9. Sea Change

Beck
2002

“These days I barely get by"

This might be the saddest album ever. Admittedly, I’ve never heard Blood on the Tracks, but come on. I’m not a “professional.” Also, Bob Dylan can sure write some awesome lyrics, but his voice – uh, eh, ugh. So let’s just call this the saddest album of the decade, ‘k?

Oh my. Beck Hanson. What a weird dude. Allow me to list for you some of his singles: “MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack,” “Steve Threw Up,” “Beercan,” “Mixed Bizness.” Wow. That tells you a lot right there. There are others I can’t (shouldn’t) even list the names of. Nevertheless, I like a lot of this guy’s music. He’s always done his own thing in deference to most popular music and for that he gains a bit of my admiration. In recent years he’s classed-up his act significantly beginning with this album.

Sea Change is the product of Beck’s grief after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend. The pain of that loss is palpable. It does a better job of conveying the emotion of deep personal loss and loneliness better than any other album I’ve heard. When Beck comes to the titular lyric on “Guess I’m Doing Fine” I just want to shout to him, “No, man! No you aren’t!” and give him a hug. Ok, maybe that’s a little weird. Listen to the song; you’ll know what I mean.

Among the best songs are “The Golden Age,” “Paper Tiger,” “Sunday Sun,” and “Little One,” which have the sonic fingerprints of producer Nigel Godrich (who also produced my number one pick. Hint! Hint!) all over them. Godrich’s distinct “layers of sound” elevate Beck’s “guy with a guitar” approach to another level. Though intensely personal, the songs sound sweeping and epic. The tragedy is small in the grand scheme of things, but when you’re the one experiencing it, your world is being rocked.

Sea Change may be a downer, but it’s a beautiful downer.

^8. Letters to the Editor, Volume 1

Andrew Osenga
2007

“I caught myself looking in the mirror wishing I was someone else”

Technically, this isn’t a full album. It’s only 6 songs and 20 minutes long. But it’s awesome and I don’t care. I’m breaking my own rules.

This album is the essence of singer/songwriter music. It’s honest, personal, heartfelt, and just a bit sappy. Plus artist Andrew Osenga gave this away as a free download on his website (you can still get it as of this writing). C’mon, go give it a listen. It’s free.

Listening to this, you might not believe that it’s actually a concept album. Sort of. Osenga had his fans send him inspirational tidbits – photos, poems, stories, quotes, etc. – that he could use as inspiration. Using only one acoustic guitar per song, his voice, and as much multi-tracking of the two as he wanted, he wrote and recorded the album within two weeks. He struck gold as far as I’m concerned.

There’s a PDF attached to the download which explains where all the inspiration comes from. It’s really cool to hear how the making of this album was a collective effort and yet it sounds very personal.

I absolutely love every one of these songs for the same reason I love all good folk. Either I have experienced these feelings and situation myself or I can easily relate to them. “Wanted,” which as far as I’m concerned is one of the best love songs ever, describes that essential element of any relationship “and if you say that you want me to//I’ll believe you to follow through//all I want is to be wanted by you.” “The Ball Game” is about the clash between dreams and reality; “The Blessing Curse” poignantly reminds us “getting what you want is both a blessing and a curse.”

But my favourite song is the closer “Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates” a beautiful song about the promise of Heaven. Osenga wisely chose to break his own rule (much as I have in choosing this album) toward the end of the song by including a choir of voices sent in by his fans.

If this were a full-length album, I’d probably place it much higher on my list. Just the fact that I’m breaking my own rules should tell you how much I love this album… or how little regard I have for my own rules. Either one. But seriously, I love this album.

^7. In Between Dreams

Jack Johnson
2005

“Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart”

I feel confident saying this is the best album Jack Johnson will ever produce. If I am wrong, I will happily acknowledge my mistake.

I wouldn’t say I’m a Jack Johnson fan. I’m an In Between Dreams fan. Most of Johnson’s stuff sounds the same no matter what he’s singing about or what kind of guitar he’s playing. So whether you like Jack Johnson’s music will depend directly on how much you like his style because he hasn’t and isn’t likely to change it much. Somehow all his distilled essence as a songwriter and a person wound up on this single album. And it’s magnificent.

Jack infuses the whole album an obvious Hawaiian flavour. It’s the use of Hawaiian phrases, the ukulele, and the general relaxed sound. There’s no hurry, no rush to get anywhere which makes this album sort of a nice music refuge from the insufferable fast-pace of the modern world.

In fact, this album is a genial criticism of modern life. Jack seems to be telling us all the slow down especially “Banana Pancakes.” In “Good People” he questions the ethics and morality of television; on “Crying Shame” he questions our motives for war. If there’s any central message to this album it’s probably “chill out.”

Having been fortunate enough to vacation in Hawaii, I can understand this frame-of-mind. There they have a concept known as “island time.” Maybe it’s just something they tell tourists. Maybe it’s an actual psychological effect of living on an island. I don’t know. But I felt it when I was there. We’re always rushing. Why? It seems like some people just can’t take a break no matter how badly they need to recharge.

So next time you’re overstressed and you need a break, turn on In Between Dreams: perhaps the most relaxing album of this past decade. Hang loose.

Ok, I promise this is the last singer/songwriter album on the list!

^6. Mute Math

Mute Math
2006

“Can I break the spell of the typical”

In a word: yes.

Mute Math is in an odd place as a band right now. They’re still flying below the radar in many circles but are beginning to gain traction in others. I am proud to say I discovered them back in 2006 when this gem of a debut album first gained wide release. Is this how indie-music people feel all the time?

I was immediately hooked by their lead single “Typical” and its accompanying music video. Even if you generally dislike music videos, you owe it to yourself to watch “Typical.” Seriously. Go do it right now.

That video and song are a perfect nutshell description of the band: their energy, creativity and quest to break the mold. And somehow they have. Mute Math is a nigh-perfect merger of post-rock, experimental electronica, and progressive influences into an accessible pop form. The result is something futuristic, though not entirely avant-garde.

Plus these guys are just talented. All of them are great at what they do and if that’s not enough, they’re also multi-instrumentalists. Drummer Darren King’s mad skills shine throughout, especially when he goes nuts toward the end of “Reset.” More than anything, Mute Math is a drum-driven band. Bassist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas whom I had the good fortune to meet in person, gets to rock the double bass on the fantastic instrumental “Obsolete.” Keyboardist and vocalist Paul Meany who used to rap with Earthsuit (wow) can be alternately smooth and gentle or rough and wild with his voice which is perfect for their style. Guitarist Greg Hill displays the ability to play a variety of styles to suit the many influences of the band.

All this talent carries over into the live experience. If you ever get the chance to see Mute Math live, do not pass it up. I when to a show last October and I can safely say it was the most amazing concert I’ve ever seen. Just talk to anyone who’s been to a Mute Math show and they’ll tell you a similar story.

And though talent and showmanship doesn’t always lead to fame and popularity, I think if Mute Math continues on their present course they have the potential to be one of the major bands of this coming decade.

^5. The Eleventh Hour

Jars of Clay
2002

“Your love can make these things better”

Those who know the band and especially those who know me are probably wondering why I picked this album over Good Monsters which is generally considered superior. Good Monsters won numerous accolades upon its release and brought many former Jars listeners back into the fold. But wait a second - ! The Eleventh Hour won the band their third consecutive Grammy and was also critically acclaimed (not that I care about the critics).

So both albums are very, very good. What makes The Eleventh Hour superior in my estimation? One word: pacing. When Monsters was first released I loved it. I totally ignored the one complaint consistently lodged against the album. But it’s true, unfortunately. Good Monsters is a better collection of songs; this is a better album.

In one word The Eleventh Hour is about love, possibly the most common theme in all of music and especially in Jars’. But this isn’t a simple collection of love songs though it may seem like that at first glance. Nearly every song can be seen as a romantic love song or a song about God’s love for humanity and for every individual in particular. And it works. Sure, this is an approach that’s been tried before, but nothing is unoriginal which is done excellently.

Although there are a few exceptions, this theme is evident in songs like Scarlet: “And this old scarlet letter won’t keep me from holding you//and there is nothing you do” which might speak of a lover’s willingness to forgive a wayward partner or God’s willingness to forgive us. Silence centers on doubt and loneliness: “I thought you were silent//and I thought you left me for the wreckage and the waste//on that empty beach of faith”. The album’s closer The Edge of Water longs for the return of a lover which is an illusion to the Second Coming: “Will you chase away these shadows when you come back again?”

Musically, this album is an adept blend of alternative rock, pop, and folk. It’s not as acoustically-driven as the band’s earlier releases or as heavy as some of the stuff on Good Monsters.

It’s a lot of fun to listen to a given song in one context and then again in the other. On the one hand you get a deftly-written love song, on the other you get a song with deep theological implications. This album is for those in love either with another person or with our Creator. I think it does an equally good job of illustrating both.

^4. Parachutes

Coldplay
2000

“We live in a beautiful world”

Let me begin by saying I love all of Coldplay’s current albums. This was the most difficult choice for this list. I knew Coldplay had to be represented somehow. Not only were they perhaps the biggest band of the decade, but they were also one of the few massively popular artists I feel actually deserve their large following. Are Coldplay overrated? Absolutely. Most bands are.

Aside from the massive cultural influence the band enjoyed this past decade, I just love their music which is odd because I certainly don’t like all arena rock. There’s just something about Chris Martin’s longing, emotive lyrics and vocals that smacks of utter sincerity even if he is singing to the entire world.

Parachutes, however, is a different story. Before they blew up, before they went semi-arena rock, they were just Coldplay: a little English band-that-could. It’s the group’s only album where the name “Coldplay” seems to really fit the music. It’s largely mellow and relaxed – not rushing to build itself up to a higher plane, just content to meander though visual metaphors and sweet emotional expressions. To illustrate the difference between Parachutes-era Coldplay and later Coldplay, just listen to the hit songs “Yellow” and “Clocks” back-to-back.

Not everything on Parachutes is mellow. “Shiver,” one of my favourite rock songs, showed not only what the band could do, but also the versatility of Chris Martin and his amazing trademark falsetto. “Spies” brings the tempo and volume down with a beautiful guitar arrangement and from there the tranquil mellow sound takes over.

Of all Coldplay’s albums, Parachutes is the sweetest and most sincere – but, y’know, in a good way.

^3. Elephant

The White Stripes
2003

“A seven nation army couldn't hold me back”

Ah, Elephant. What can I say about this album? What can I say about The White Stripes for that matter? You’ve got to admire Jack White’s attitude about making music. You can tell that it’s absolutely one of his favourite things in the world. To him, making music is about love. Music is love and anything that gets in the way or covers up the raw emotion and feeling (like overproduction) should be done away with. Yes, music is a business, but not during the creation process!

Thus we have The White Stripes and band that doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is: a guy with a guitar and a girl with a drum set. Though they’ve lately broken away from that simple beginning in favor of a more varied instrument set, this is their best album. It stands halfway between the very indie-sounding (read: rough) first few albums and the experimentation with their formula found on later albums. It’s a good place to be.

Of course you’ve got the rocking single “Seven Nation Army” to kick things off but it turns out that’s not terribly representative of the album’s sound. “Army” always sounded modern to me while most of the other songs clearly have older influences.

“Blues rock” is the best descriptor of this kind of music, I think. It’s like if B.B. King played everything with fuzz guitar and talked primarily about unrequited love and self-doubt… and used lots of power chords… and was white. That’s basically Jack White. Sort of. Not exactly. My apologies to B.B. King and everyone knowledgeable about popular music for that analogy. Please disregard.

If you’ve only ever heard “Seven Nation Army,” you owe it to yourself to check out the rest of this album. It’s just a lot of fun. It’s a throwback to a time when music was more about heart and style than production and grooming.

My only problem with is album is the cover. It’s supposed to somehow form a hidden picture of an elephant though I’ve never been able to see it. Grrr.

^2. Funeral

Arcade Fire
2004

“I've been learning to drive my whole life”

Originally I was going to list Arcade Fire’s second album Neon Bible in third place. Neon Bible though generally well-thought-of is widely considered inferior to their debut. It was my first exposure to the band and is definitely more polished and reserved than Funeral.

Fortunately I came to my senses in time to declare this my number two album of the decade.

Actually, when I “discovered” what this album was about, I thought about debunking my long-chosen number one pick, but no. I think this is the right decision. For now.

The album, quite simply, is about growing up. The title Funeral refers to the death of childhood either figuratively or literally. Lost is our childlike innocence and ignorance. Open to us is the frightening new world of adulthood with a set of new challenges and lessons.

This is an absolutely beautiful album start-to-finish. It’s an especially applicable theme for me since I “came of age” this past decade. Arcade Fire makes it seem personal by using language, experiences, and feelings that broadly evoke memories of childhood. I know that magical feeling described in “Tunnels”: “And if the snow buries my neighborhood… then I’ll dig a tunnel from my window to yours.” And those clipping, screeching, “unpolished” vocals that I couldn’t stand on my first few listens so beautifully convey the emotional heights and depths of childhood and growing up.

My favourite song “In the Backseat” contains the entire theme in a perfect, poignant nutshell. As children we ride carefree in the backseat of the car while our parents worry about the logistics of travel: “I don’t have to drive//I don’t have to speak//I can watch the countryside and I can fall asleep.” But we are growing up whether we realize it; whether we want it. The cycle of life continues and age comes to us all: “My family tree’s losing all its leaves//crashing toward the driver’s seat.” And suddenly we wake up and realize we are adults: “Alice died in the night//I’ve been learning to drive my whole life.” Lyrically, vocally, and musically it’s an amazing finish to an album that’s as sweetly beautiful, tragic, and emotionally tremulous as childhood – and indeed life – itself.

^1. Kid A

Radiohead
2000

“Everything in its right place”

I bet there are some eyes rolling. "Oh, he picked Kid A. Everybody picked that." But I'm seriously one of those strange people who "get" this album. I genuinely think it's brilliant and not because I was told to think that. In fact, I hated it during my first few listens. But there was something strangely enticing that kept me coming back.

Music is an inherently strange thing. When it comes right down to it, it’s just an arrangement of sonic patterns which somehow appeal to us. And music has power. Music entertains, makes us dance, makes us sing, and moves us emotionally. But only very special music can transport your mind to another place. Kid A will do that if you let it.

As I indicated, this album has made numerous “album of the decade” lists, often landing at number one. Beyond being a spectacular sonic journey, this album was an incredibly bold offering from a band that was already considered to be at the top of their game. Their previous album OK Computer, also a masterpiece, was universally acclaimed but if you listen to that album and then play Kid A you’ll wonder what in the world happened to Radiohead’s guitar-driven alternative rock sound.

It takes guts for a band to reinvent themselves while at the top of their game, but it takes true genius for that reinvention to work as well as Kid A does. Radiohead took the basic formula of 3 – 5 minute rock songs, stripped out many of the familiar sonic elements, rearranged others and ended up with something that wasn’t entirely new, but sounded completely original and unfamiliar… and amazing.

This album has some of the best art ever. It's a perfect visual illustration of the music. Kid A is a dream. Perhaps it’s the fantasy we in modern society have been living for years.

At first we are out on the ice in a veritable winter wonderland with tall, icy mountains lingering on the horizon. We do not even notice the fire that burns beyond them. We are happy and oblivious. Everything in its right place. But soon cracks in the dream begin to show. “The National Anthem” declares “everyone has got the fear.” “In Limbo” outright tells us “You’re living in a fantasy world.” By the album’s conclusion we finally see the harsh reality behind the dream. The final track, “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” is an ethereal symphony led by an organ. It sounds lofty and magnificent, but somehow hollow – like our dream. “It’s not like the movies; they fed us on little white lies.” The façade is gone. The nightmare is creeping in.

Of course that’s just my interpretation of this confusing and hazy album. But I find it eerily fitting for a decade defined by fear, mistrust, and the disillusion of naïve dreams. Let’s hope Radiohead’s follow-up album Amnesiac isn’t an accurate description of the 2010s.

And that's it! I'd really love to hear your opinions. What are your favourite albums from the past 10 years? If you've bothered to read this far, you might as well comment, right? End long, long post!

Thoughts on the iPad

2010-01-30T15:25:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday Apple announced their "latest creation" the iPad. But unless you've been living under a rock, you already knew that.

After months of nebulous rumors about a revolutionary tablet computing device, it turns out it's basically just a giant iPod touch. Kinda boring. Not that it's ugly or uncool - far from it. Still, it doesn't live up to the hype and seems like a really practical and mundane choice coming from Apple.

Oh well.

Now the question is: will this thing sell? I think it has a chance of doing decently well simply because it's from Apple and it's

The "wow" factor tends to move a lot of units on it own. This should not be underestimated. There were plenty of doubts that the original iPhone would be successful mostly due to its initial pricetag. But as the price came down and the word got around, it quickly gained a large marketshare.

But there were smartphones before the iPhone in widespread use. There were portable music players before the iPod. Apple intelligently got into those markets at the right time with the right device. I'm not sure they've done the same here.

I have very mixed feelings about this device. Let's break it down into two categories: Wins and Fails.

Win: Based on iPhone OS

Not only did this save them development time and money, but it also ensured that millions of users of the iPhone and iPod touch would already be familiar with the device. Also iPhone apps work with the iPad which is a sensible move since right off the bat there will be tons of apps for this thing.

Fail: No Background Processing

I can understand this limitation on the iPhone. People just want their phones to work and allowing users access to background processes could lead to significant problems with their devices. Even without background processing, I've still experienced some annoying technical problems and sluggishness.

Yet the iPad is supposed to replace netbooks. Granted, netbooks aren't powerful computing platforms, but you can at least browse the web and word process at the same time. Anyone looking for serious mobile productivity will have to look elsewhere.

Win: ebooks

On Thursday, I saw a spot on Fox News comparing the Amazon Kindle to the iPad. Side-by-side, it's a laughable comparison. Ask anyone what they'd prefer to own just by looking at them and I guarantee you the vast majority would chose the iPad. It's a sleeker, more capable device. And it has COLOR. That's a big deal. That means full-color illustrations and photos for textbooks and newspapers. Plus the iPad could potentially offer comic books (or graphic novels, if you must call them that). The only thing the Kindle has going for it is E Ink which is nice and comfortable to read on. It's also significantly cheaper at $260. But the iPad is so... shiny...

But did they really have to re-name them "ibooks"? That's pretty arrogant even for Apple.

Fail: Textbooks
Although textbooks would look great in full color on the iPad, there is one fundamental problem with using this for school: students are poor as dirt. Oh wait. There's one more fundamental problem: textbook publishers are a racket. Although I'd love to carry one ebook reader instead of several metric tons on books, textbook prices are likely to remain high even in digital form. And there's no reselling e-textbooks. For most students that's likely to be a deal breaker. Even if I had an iPad right now, I don't think I'd but a textbook with it for that reason alone.

Win: Web browsing
This seems an ideal device for just plain 'ol web browsing. The size and resolution are perfect. The multitouch control is unparalleled. It seems like the virtual keyboard would function very well at this size too. But will it have Flash support? Like background processing, this is a missing feature that doesn't bother me so much on the iPhone, but there's no reason the iPad shouldn't have it!

Fail: Media Player

This isn't a "fail" per se. The media playing will work marvelously I'm sure. It's just relatively useless. We'd complain if it weren't there, but how often is this going to be used as a music player? Almost never because it can fit in your pocket! And while the prospect of watching videos on its screen is more attractive than on the iPhone's, that is also a rare use case.

Ironically I think the biggest problem with the iPad is branding. Apple normally does a marvelous job at this. This time I think they failed to give their device an identity.

What is the iPod? A portable music player. It's for people who want music on-the-go.

What's the iPhone? A smartphone with a well-design operating system and the features of an iPod built-in. It's for people who want a phone with a lot of features that's easy to use.

What is the iPad? It's a... uh... portable computer that's smaller than a laptop and performs the functions of a stripped-down tablet computer and an ebook reader with the features of an iPod built-in... I think.

See how nebulous that is?

If you've already got a laptop and an iPhone/iPod touch then I see no reason for a device in the middle. Steve Jobs, even with his infamous reality distortion field, fail to convince me of that. It's still a niche device, but if anyone's going to make the tablet and/or the ebook reader catch on, it's probably Apple.

dans France, pt. 1

2010-01-27T08:07:00.005-06:00

Hello everyone! This is Joshua, signing in for what seems like the first time this year. I know most of the stuff that we've done on this blog hasn't strayed very far into our private lives, mostly because they're, well, private. But I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been repeated ad nauseam and the only thing that I really have any unique ideas on is my life.

So, for those interested in what's been going on in my life, continue reading.

As some of you may know, I am currently studying abroad in Strasbourg, France

It's a little town (around 450,000 people live there) in north-east France, about a 5 minute drive from Germany. I'm studying at both the Ecole de Management and the Institut Etudes Politiques, basically the business and political science branches of the University of Strasbourg. It's been pretty fun thus far, especially the meeting new people from all corners of the world bit. I feel like I will come back from France speaking more Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese than I will French, but c'est la vie.

My routine has started to become routine, settling into that old familiarity with which most people approach daily life, all the while oblivious to the fact that they feel completely at ease doing what they're doing. That's the real struggle here: feeling at home and comfortable. I am constantly reminded I don't speak the language by the signs on the side of the road, the people walking by me, and the people who are unlucky enough to hazard a one-sided conversation with me.

Half the students I talk to haven't even heard of the Chateau de Pourtales, my home for this semester, so I've found it rather difficult to explain that I live in a castle. Pictures are few and far between online, so here's one I took myself.

Despite the fact that I took these pictures on a really nice camera, Blogger is for some reason down-scaling the resolution so that they can fit on its limited bandwidth, which is a bummer. Anyway, so that's where I live. It's really pretty and very castle-y--meaning it creaks, is cold at night, and just generally rocks. Here's another picture of it while the weather was warmer than it is now.

Doesn't that look awesome?

Anyhow, back to what we've actually done so far. I flew into the Frankfurt airport and was picked up by one of the coordinators here, Willi. I met Ian and Thomas at the airport, both students participating in the same program that I am. We drove back to Strasbourg, and crashed, because at that point we had all been up for longer than 24 hours.

Over the course of the next couple of days, we "discovered Strasbourg." Willi showed us the cathedral, the downtown area, and various other beautiful parts of this beautiful city. There'll be a lot of pictures going up soon on Facebook.

pt. 2 coming soon!
Boat cruise
Walk through the park
Kehl
Welcome dinner: Gurtlerhoft
Alsatian museum
Stuttgart
Baden-Baden
Wine tasting

Hilarious Sesame Street Guest Appearances

2010-01-16T23:16:00.002-06:00

Sesame Street of course has a long history of having guest stars who no kids are going to recognize. But I guess being on Sesame Street is a sign you've "made it" or something. Here are some recent guest star segments that made me chuckle.

Jack Black - I think he's really, really good at this. Maybe he should be on more childrens' shows.

Liam Neeson - I don't think Neeson has even been scarier. I love the line: "I counted to 20 on the West End."

Neil Patrick Harris - The shoe fairy seems on oddly fitting role after having played "Dr. Horrible." He and Jack Black need to co-star on a new childrens' show. I'd watch it.

Feist - This is far better than the real music video.

Lawrence Fishburne - Morpheus on Sesame Street. Yes.

Anderson Cooper - Cooper doesn't seem to be that into it, but watching him pop out of the trash can is priceless.

Natalie Portman - I can't decide if I like her better in this or in her SNL rap video.

Ricky Gervais (creator of the original British version of The Office) - This is just surreal.

Jason Miraz - I've not heard that much of his stuff, I just thought others would appreciate it.

B.B. King - Yes. B.B. King's the man.

Ray Romano - I find the subject matter very fitting.

Joe Torre - I think it's funny how Torre basically tells Elmo to stop playing baseball and go for a walk... y'know, 'cause baseball is so unhealthy.

Dubious iTunes Awards

2009-12-21T16:14:00.002-06:00

According to iTunes, the best album this year was Kings of Leon's "Only By Night" while the best new artist was Lady GaGa. I would like for someone to please do one of the following:

Shoot me
Tell me I'm dreaming
Tell me this is a bad joke
Tell me the year's almost over

Naturally they gave "best artist" to Michael Jackson. Really? Uh, did he release any new material this year? No. Presumably they are counting "This is It" as his new album, but it's comprised almost entirely remastered songs. No, I'm not a fan.

Speaking of shameless reissues, Taylor Swift's "Fearless: Platinum Edition" won best country album. Oh come on! Reissues should not be eligible no matter how informal your awards. Not that I care about country - it's the principle of the thing.

The top 3 movies were Pixar's "Up," J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" sequel/prequel/reboot, and very R-rated comedy "The Hangover." Uh... well "Star Trek" was good at least...

I'm not going to comment on their TV show selections simply because I only watch a couple myself and I have no idea what most of these are about. I will say, however, I was saddened to see a "Reality TV" section. The top reality TV? Apparently "Top Chief," (which is at least better than "Top Model") and "The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Judging by the picture it looks like 4 out of 5 New Jersey housewives are supermodels. Hmm. That reality is questionable.

Books fared no better, unfortunately. Numbers 2 through 5 on the list of top-selling fiction audiobooks where all from Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series. And number 6 was a Dan Brown novel. *groan*

Interestingly, Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" is number 2 on the non-fiction list and has been popular for quite some time. This is odd and a little disconcerting. I wonder what are so many people doing with their newfound knowledge of 6th century BC military tactics? Playing Shogun: Total War?

Also on the nonfiction list is Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope." Silly, Mr. President. You aren't supposed to write a best-seller until after you're out of office.

Now, I realize that iTunes is using this as a marketing tool and these lists are for the most part based on sales... but doesn't that make it all the more depressing?

Pre-Christmas Anger

2009-11-30T21:14:00.001-06:00

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

So Christmastime is almost here or is already upon us depending on your reckoning. I say it starts in December, but I tolerate other people's celebration beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. It's the ones who start before that I can't stand.

For some reason I have a lot of hate and bile I need to get rid of so I can properly get in to the *warning: overused phrase ahead* holiday spirit. Maybe it's because I haven't been feeling well the past few days. Maybe it's because I've just been royally defrauded by Apple (I may post on this soon). Or maybe it's because of all those *warning: hick word ahead* doggone people who started Christmas early.

Fortunately for me, the internet was practically invented for the dispensing of hatred and bile (and stupidity and pictures of cats). The subject of my wrath today? Why indie music of course! And what subject deserves ripping on more? (Hint: it involves vampires).

I was looking for some new music the other day. Admittedly, I am pickier than most people with my musical choices and I have a terrible habit of berating other peoples' tastes in music which I really need to stop (unless they like country, of course.) As I listened to some of these bands, I noticed some things that caused me to immediately turn off the music. Although these trends are not exclusive to indie music, they seem to be more common amongst indie bands (especially number 11.)

Dear indie bands (and any band, really),

If you start off with a repetitive and predictable guitar riff, I will not listen to you
Even worse: if you start off with a repetitive and predictable chord progression that even I could play, I will not listen to you
If you claim to sound like The Beatles, I will not listen to you (everyone “sounds like” The Beatles)
If you claim to sound completely original then you are almost certainly lying and I will not listen to you
If you begin your album with an ABAB rhyme structure, I will not listen to you
If your vocalist sounds like he should be in a punk/rock band, I will not listen to you (sorry)
If you are an obvious imitation of another band or short-lived musical trend, I will not listen to you
If you start off with a trite love song, I will not listen to you. Sappy love songs are okay if they’re genuine.
If the first word on your album is “Sometimes…”, I will not listen to you
If you use synthesized string choruses, I will not listen to you (probably)
If your band name is a lame attempt at humour or is longer than seven words (that’s generous), I will not listen to you
If it is obvious that you use Auto-Tune or some other similarly annoying voice-processor, I will not listen to you

There are arbitrary exceptions to all above rules (except for 9, 11 and 12, of course).

I feel better now, but only a little.

Music mega-post

2009-10-11T18:26:00.002-05:00

There's a lot of serious topics that I want to delve into sooner or later, but for now--have some jamming tunes.

"Blow Away" by A Fine Frenzy:

"Walking the Dog" by fun.:

"Title and Registration" by Death Cab for Cutie:

"Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens:

"Daylight" by Matt and Kim:

"The Calculation" by Regina Spektor:

"Vanilla Twilight" by Owl City:

please for the love of humanity, if you don't like this particular song at least give him a couple more to impress

"Rebellion (Lies)" by Arcade Fire:

That's all for now, kids. If you didn't find at least a song here that you liked, I can't help you.

The staggering weight of glory

2009-10-05T23:19:00.008-05:00

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

When I look around and see people going on with their lives as if they are well and truly happy with the way things are and not the way things ought to be I wonder if I have it all backwards. The gospel and its progress come slowly to me, when they come at all. It is a gospel of brokenness and not a gospel of progress. Why should I want to be broken? Do I want to be broken? It's so utterly foreign to any person self-motivated. I’m told that's all of us.

The Rapist

2009-10-04T15:32:00.000-05:00

I’ve been out of the loop for quite a while on current news stories. In general, I try to avoid listening to or reading a lot of news since it tends to make me want antidepressants. However, I the more I hear about this Roman Polanski story, the angrier I get.

For those unaware, Roman Polanski is a film director acclaimed for such movies as Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, and The Pianist. In 1977, he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl. After pleading guilty and being convicted in Los Angles he fled the country. Polanski eluded capture until last week when he was captured in Switzerland while on his way to a film festival.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t comment on a story like this, but it offends me on so many levels that I feel compelled to vent here. I am offended as a human being. I am offended as an American. I am offended as a film student. I am so utterly sickened by the way so many Hollywood elite have stood up for this rapist simply because they admire his art.

Obviously, I am sickened by Polanski himself. I have no sympathy for him. None at all. Not only did the man rape somebody, but it was a 13-year-old girl who he first took nude photos of and drugged. That is disgusting, animalistic and totally indefensible. Then, having acknowledged his crime, he fled the country and remained free and unpunished for over 30 years.

From what I understand, the man has never shown regret for this and certainly hasn’t accepted the consequences of his actions. Had he acknowledged the foulness of his crime and served his time, I would have a more sympathy for the man. As it stands, I want him put away for the rest of his miserable life. I wouldn’t even be against taking him behind the shed and putting him down. It’s no less than the coward deserves. His kind preys on the weak. We should not be weak dispensing punishment.

Secondly, I am angry with law enforcement officials. The man made 10 films since the rape. How could he do that? I’m not aware of all the details, but I’m pretty sure part of it was the U.S. stopped trying so hard and part of it was that France apparently doesn’t have a problem with rape (or harboring criminals of its “allies”) and sort-of gave him sanctuary. This man should have been caught and arrested when he first popped his head up to make Tress. Why was he not?

Now France has finally dropped their support for Polanski but a group of filmmakers and actors have signed a petition calling for his release. The full translated text of the petition is this:

We have learned the astonishing news of Roman Polanski’s arrest by the Swiss police on September 26th, upon arrival in Zurich (Switzerland) while on his way to a film festival where he was due to receive an award for his career in filmmaking. His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.

Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.

By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.

The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.

Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renowned and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.

Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians - everyone involved in international filmmaking - want him to know that he has their support and friendship.

On September 16th, 2009, Mr. Charles Rivkin, the US Ambassador to France, received French artists and intellectuals at the embassy. He presented to them the new Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the embassy, Ms Judith Baroody. In perfect French she lauded the Franco-American friendship and recommended the development of cultural relations between our two countries.

If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.

Can you believe that? And guess what? A lot of notable people have signed this piece of tripe including directors Woody Allen (Annie Hall), Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married), Terry Gilliam (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 12 Monkeys, Brazi), John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers), David Lynch (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Lost Highway), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Departed), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler), Michael Mann (The Last of the Mohicans, Ali, Public Enemies), Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, will be directing the Hobbit films).

I am probably the angriest with these people. Yes, Polanski did a terrible, terrible thing, but these people are now trying to use their clout as filmmakers and “artists” to get the general public to dismiss that terrible, terrible act.

Some would argue that it isn’t right to dismiss the art because of the wrongdoings of the artist and I agree with that. But these people derive their authority from the admiration of their art. If no one went to their films, they wouldn’t have such powerful voices. Therefore, as long as these people continue to use their influence which is derived from their films to call evil good and good evil, I cannot support them in any way.

I’m not usually for boycotts. I find them silly and usually ineffective, but here I think it makes a lot of sense and it certainly isn’t over something silly. I am supposed to watch Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull in my Cinema Arts. I’m sure it’s a good movie. As an aspiring filmmaker I’m sure there are things I could learn from it, but it is my intention to calmly explain my reasoning and walk out of the class on that day.

I am a big fan of Tolkien’s works, of course. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the Hobbit films for years, but unless director Guillermo del Toro removes his name from the petition, I will boycott those too. I urge anyone who believes in justice to do the same. Please, if you’re going to see a film, take the time to see if the director has signed the petition and carefully consider what kind of artist you are patronizing. (Full list of signers here.)

This is much larger than silly partisan political issues. This is something that people of any party, nation, ethnicity, or trade ought to agree on. It is a clear-cut issue. We must call evil: evil and not allow those who would dismiss such acts to have any cultural authority.

O heart! heart! heart! O bleeding drops of red.

2009-09-30T18:17:00.004-05:00

It's probably more my fault than anything that this blog has pretty much died. I've had a shortage of time, ambition, and things to say. That's pretty much a recipe for sheer doom.

So if anyone actually reads this: I'm sorry.

As for where to go now...you know where, two paragraphs ago, I said that I've had a shortage of things to say? Well, that's really not true at all. It's more been a shortage of things that I know how to say, or things that I think people would be interested in hearing.

I've decided, at least for the time being, that I don't really care about what people care about hearing or what I know how to say. So, I'm going to say a little bit about a lot of things that are on my mind. Everyone say it with me! It's gallimaufry time!

1. War/Non-violence

Earlier this year I posted about pacifism and took it down shortly thereafter. Since then, I've had several debates on the topic, each one ending without anyone really changing their mind at all. Only once have I had someone actually agree with me. Suffice it to say this is a controversial topic.

For now, just to give people a little to ruminate on, I'm just going to quote early Church fathers. I realize this is not scripture, but I think it will help stimulate some conversation and help people realize that pacifism isn't such a strange doctrine for a Christian to hold.

"We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder, and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war."-- Justin Martyr

"A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate who wears the purple must resign or be rejected. If an applicant or a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God."-- Hippolytos

"The Church is an army of peace that sheds no blood."-- Clement of Alexandria

"You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers."-- Origen

"When individuals commit homicide, it is a crime; it is called a virtue when done in the name of the state."-- Cyprian

It is only when the idea of the church and state become blended with Constantine that the church ceases to be revolutionary and starts to promote the theory of "just war."

Moving on.

2. Music

I could talk about music for about 4 hours before listing an artist that most people have heard before. However, I honestly hate the typical indie snob. I also dislike people who think that Jason Mraz is indie and underground after being played nonstop on the radio for 6 months, but that's a different story.

To keep this relatively short, I'll list a couple of fairly "normal" artists I've been listening to lately and enjoying quite a lot.

The Resistance-- Muse

I know Matt said that he though the lead single was a little forced in its political references, but Muse has always trended libertarian/anarchistic, and most of their albums are full of these kind of references. Also, most of the other songs on this album aren't so upfront. I like their other stuff a lot, hence I like this album a lot. It's legit.

Swoon-- Silversun Pickups

This is a shoegaze band, which, according to Wikipedia, means music "typified by significant use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blended into the creative noise of the guitars." All I know is that it's awesome.

Ocean Eyes-- Owl City

Please oh please get this album. Get all three of his albums. This is the all-American success story of the year, I think. I've found two bands before they blew up, so to speak: Vampire Weekend, and now Owl City. Pretty much everyone at this college has now heard of this guy, even though he was virtually unknown when I found out about him early this spring. Oh, and the reason I said it was such a success story is the fact that he only started making music to pass the time he couldn’t sleep due to his insomnia.

3. I'm out of time.

This wasn't really a gallimaufry, but I have to leave now to go to dinner. I figure I'll post this before I leave and never get around to it. Here's to hoping that I actually post more often! Cheers!

P.S. I apologize for the unrelated-ness of those two topics.

Update 180

2009-09-15T22:42:00.008-05:00

115 posts in 2007.

58 posts in 2008.

6 posts in 2009.

Yeah, this blog is dying fast.

Well, in my indefensible defense, I haven't really had the stimulation or direction to blog lately. I'm honestly not sure what to do with this blog. Should I go more personal or keep occasionally posting my thoughts about politics and philosophy and all that jazz? I'm not quite sure yet. What is the point to even having a blog now that I can connect with friends via Facebook and Twitter and other outlets?

Originally I began blogging because I am a writer. Or, at least, I fancy myself a writer. I'm also a geek, so naturally when blogs came along I jumped on that bandwagon just as quickly as I could. But now I see how much of a comittment is needed to keep it up. And even if I did blog consistantly and well (a huge, improbable assumption) who would read it?

I'm not sure any of these questions really need to be answered. It would be nice though. Lots of things that will never happen would be nice.

I am utterly sick of the whole political angle right now, so I shall go personal with this post.

I am currently in my sophomore year in college. I am in college primarily to get a degree because apparently that's important for getting a job in this world. If I happen to get an education at the same time then so be it. My major right now is "Digital Cinema." The goal, the dream is to be a filmmaker, but every day that seems more and more unlikely not because I don't think I could do it, but because the world seems intent on falling apart just about the time my life will actually become interesting. But I told myself this wouldn't be a political post so I'll restrain myself from saying any more on that subject.

I just finished up doing a big video project which I think is best described as Jason Reitman meets the Office meets David Chapelle's Block Party meets Soulja Boy. Okay, that is a wildly inaccurate description, but didn't it sound amazing?

In the past I've deliberately kept this blog and my other website separate because they're so different in tone. It seemed odd that I had this, a somewhat serious blog where I have tried occasionally to be intellectual and also my hobbist video website on which I had some pretty ameturish and silly videos. It somehow made sense to put those different fascits of my personality into separate boxes. But for the curious, the website is tennineteenproductions.com. I'll try not to mention it too often because I don't want to cross-promote two wildly different things.

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to blog more as the stimulation comes. 140 characters on Twitter just doesn't cut it.

Um... yeah

2009-05-19T15:24:00.001-05:00

Ohmygoodness, I've got a blog! That's right.

Well I haven't got any thought-provoking revelations or anything really interesting to say.

I finally installed Windows 7 on my desktop (I'd been testing it on my laptop for a couple of months already). In fact, I'm writing this post on a Windows 7 widget called "Blogger Buddy."

Overall, it's been really, really good so far. I'm thinking of throwing a little video review together, maybe.

Trying to keep this blog alive!

- Matt

Free Software III: Media Edition

2009-04-04T19:52:00.001-05:00

In what's become an unintentially annual tradition, I bring you some more free software I've found useful over the last year or so. This year's list is mostly concentrated on video and other media. Hopeful someone will find these programs of use or at least of interest.

FYI, the old posts are here and here.

VLC Media Player

A great, lite media player than can handle virtually any format you throw at it. When I can’t get a file to play in Windows Media Player or iTunes, I use this. Lately I’ve just been using it to play all my videos and DVDs. There are lots of options, yet it’s still simple to use. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

μTorrent

I used to use Azureus for my torrenting needs few and far between as they were, but then they messed it up with Vuze. μTorrent is a simple, fast little program with no frills and no fat. There is no reason your Torrent program should have a large footprint. This does what you need it to and no more. Available for Windows. Beta version available for Mac.

HandBrake

For those with iPods, HandBrake is indispensable for video conversion. This program will transcode many video formats into formats compatible with iPods, iPhones or other media devices. You can even rip unencrypted DVDs straight to iPod format. Unlike a lot of transcoders, this one has a nice user-friendly interface so even if you don’t own an iPod, it’s worth checking out. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

DVD Decrypter

If you want to rip an encrypted DVD (a questionable legal activity, but probably an ethical one as long as you aren’t ripping them for nefarious purposes) you can use DVD Decrypter. This program will rip your encrypted DVDs into .VOB format which can then be converted into another, more widely accepted format or simply played back on your computer using appropriate software (VLC will do this.) If you have no idea what I just wrote, you might want to pass this one up for now. Windows only.

CamStudio

CamStudio is a free, open-source screen capture application. You can use it to easily capture video or take screen shots of your computer screen. It’s got a fair amount of options, although it is still a work in progress. Still, it’s only truly free screen capture application out there right now. Windows only.

YouTube Downloader

It’s exactly what it sounds like. This program is extremely simple to use. Just copy the YouTube video URL, click a button and download. Once downloaded you’ll probably want to convert the .flv file into something more usable. YouTube Downloader does that as well and is, again, very easy to use. Windows only.

Celtx

Celtx is a great tool for aspiring filmmakers like myself or anyone who wants to try their hand at writing some kind of script. This program is built on the same technologies as Firefox and is therefore open-source. It not only helps with formatting screenplays, stage plays, and other scripts, it can also be used to organize your project’s characters, actors, set, props, etc. Also useful if you are participating in Script Frenzy like I am! Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Bad Theology

2009-03-22T22:35:00.000-05:00

I just had a theological debate with Josh (though it wasn't completely pointless - sorry, inside joke) about a subject which he'll hopefully post his thoughts on soon. It was a very stimulating discussion, though I kept wanting to use a particular argument that comes up waaaay too often and if you've ever discussed theology with anyone for any significant period of time, then you've probably heard it. It goes something like this:

"I don't think God would..."

As soon as that phrase enters the conversation, red flags should go up. It is a terrible theological argument - I dare call it fallacy - that is at the source of a lot of bad theology.

It is very dangerous to imbue our own emotions, beliefs, and feelings into our understanding of God and that is what this argument does. It's not a Biblical argument, it's not even a logical argument. It's an emotional argument.

"I don't think God would want us to do this..."
"I don't think God would deny us that..."

Dangerous.

We can, of course gain an understanding of God though scripture (that's what theology is really all about). We can read his word and pray to find his will. But hard theology ought to be based on the infallible Scriptures, not what we think God is like. Even though we might have good intentions, it is too easy to project our own feelings onto God. When that happens, we are no longer discussing the real God, but a false god that we create by distorting the truth.

Remember, only you can prevent bad theology!

Okay, that's not really true, but neither is Smokey's line.

A question

2009-03-19T12:03:00.001-05:00

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

We do.

They don't speak for us

2009-02-26T17:51:00.002-06:00

I'm going to try and keep this brief and civil, but I may fail on both counts as it's so increasingly difficult to do so when discussing the government.

This is not a post about politics even though I have labeled it as such. We need to get beyond that. The argument over which political party is superior has done incalculable damage to our nation especially during the last 16 years.

While Americans aligned themselves with one party or the other claiming the other party was evil and anti-American, our elected "representatives" in Washington have been selling us out.

Here's the plain fact: most Americans, regardless of "race," religion, or political ideology want the same things. We want opportunity; the opportunity to work for a living doing something we enjoy; the opportunity to get an education; the opportunity to live comfortably; the opportunity to achieve our goals; the opportunity to raise a family and live an abundant life. Put simply, we want the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.

We forget that all too often. We think that simply because a person aligns themselves with the opposite political party or ideology, they want something different for America.

We the people care deeply about America and her future and that is why we fight amongst each other so vigorously.

The politicians of this nation do not care.

You can argue with that all you want. You can defend the people in our government whom you look to as saviors. But their actions speak louder than their words.

For a long, long time our politicians have represented only themselves. They campaign to please the public and their party. They govern to stay in power in cut deals with lobbyists. They have abused their power. They are devoid of a moral compass. They are scum.

We continue to let this happen. We vote for these idiots because if we don't, the wrong idiot might get in. We compromise and vote for the lesser of two evils rather than seeking out the good. We can no longer be pragmatic about this. Look what these fools are doing to our country!

New party leadership will not change this. The political system today is set up such that Mr. Smith can no longer get to Washington unless he is willing to change into a spineless, heartless, selfish creature known as a politician.

Bush sold us out. Obama is selling us out. Congress is running around like a decapitated chicken spending us into oblivion. I HATE our government for it. HATE THEM. I want them gone. Their idiocy now is shaping the futures of millions, perhaps billions of people around the world.

People are finally waking up, but all too many are still expecting the government to aid them in this crisis.

Right now, the United States government does not speak for me. Do they speak for you? Do you want to bailout the greed and ignorance of the banking and housing industries? Do you think Congress should have an incredibly lucrative health care and retirement package? Do you want to pay for the mismanagement of American auto companies? Do you think a guy who screwed up on his taxes should be running the IRS? Do want the government to continually spend more than it takes in?

I don't.

These people are criminals. They are stealing from current and future taxpayers to remain in power.

It sickens me how we stand by and do nothing. We sedate ourselves with entertainment and luxuries we cannot afford. We are just as much a part of the problem as they are. If neither of us change, the United States as we know it is done for. I truly believe that. The politicians will not change no matter how much they talk about it. We must be the agents of change.

I may be wrong about these things. I pray I am. If I am I shall we pleasantly surprised... but I do not expect to be.

A rant on race...

2009-02-10T22:53:00.086-06:00

So I've been doing a lot of filling out of forms recently. Man, I just love paperwork! (But that's different rant altogether.) Something that really, really bugs me on these forms is they always ask for your "race" or "ethnicity." Now, I have a really earnest question: if all the supposed "races" are the same then why the heck does it matter!? Honestly, it makes no sense to me.

Racism has never made sense to me either. I know why it exists. It's because people are fallen and just naturally screw stuff up. People discriminate against people who are different than themselves. There's a natural tendency to do that and it's not entirely bad. For example: I would discriminate against a serial killer because he is different than me. I may want to shoot that idiot who cut me off, but I, unlike the serial killer, do not follow through on my impulse to violence. That, of course, is an extreme example used to make a point (at least I didn't use Hitler or Stalin).

Racism, on the other hand, descriminates not on the basis of behaviour or ideology, but on genetics - something a person cannot change about themselves. This is completely unfair and just plain stupid.

Clearly there are some slight differences between the so-called "races." Some are cultural and some are genetic and while it is a mistake to think that all cultures are equal, it is an even bigger mistake to think that the slight differences in genetics between ethnicities makes one people group better than another.

For a long time, left-handedness was seen as wrong. Children who were left handed were made to learn to write right-handed. This notion seems very silly now, but it is a prime example of genetic discrimination.

Australian Aborigines were descriminated against for years because they were seen as "less evolved" humans (thanks for helping to justify racism, Darwin). Obviously Aborigines are just as intelligent as anyone else, the "problem" was that their culture was so outdated.

We can and should debate about culture, but we should never descriminate soley on the basis of things that people cannot change about themselves.

So why are we required to list "ethnicity" on forms? It's really for statistics, but I don't really want statistics about that sort of thing kept. As I said, it doesn't - or at least shouldn't - matter. If we want to truly eliminate racism for good then we've got to dispel the myth that there are fundamental differences between the different "races." In reality, there is only one race: the human race. We are divided by nations, languages, culture, politics, and religion, but we should not of necessity be divided because of differences we can do nothing to affect.

Bottom line: judge people by their actions and beliefs, not by their ethnicity!

Ok... gotta get back to filling out forms...