Hi Blog,
I love that after my last post, I actually went and downloaded the entire discography of Engima. Only listened to The Screen Behind the Mirror, as before when I had all their music, but ah well. I have lots of gigabytes of space on my computer and nothing with which to fill them.
Someday, I hope to be better about updating this more frequently and about intelligent topics, like those other blogs I stumble across in my travels through the internet. There are so many smart, eloquent people contributing untold wisdom to our culture, if only I knew where to look for all of them. Typically, I have nothing really to say in here, which sadly has become almost a theme for this blog. Maybe I should start over and do something useful, like blog about baking or something. This one feels weird to me, because it definitely does not feel like my old Livejournal from college, where I would spill my issue-of-the-hour to anyone who would listen, but whenever I feel inclined to write, that is typically where I'm at. So, I don't know where that leaves me besides confused.
I have my little paper journal that I write in from time to time, but it's just so much work to write it out by hand when I can type way faster. I despise when my brain operates dozens of times faster than my hand. Laame.
So anyway, I sit here bored on my old bed at home. I'm contorted in some folded up position, because the bed only fits about 3/4 of my body. The mattress feels like a ton of bricks beneath me and I can feel my back slowly breaking without even lying down to sleep yet. It will be a painful few days. Been retreating up here to avoid my parents, with whom I have nothing in common. Sometimes it feels not even our blood. Wah wah. Anyway. I decided that I am a really bad Buddhist, because I consider myself like...a half-Buddhist and that's pretty lame of me. I dig all the ideas and the logic and the positivity, but I am lazy and almost never sit down and meditate. I would say I suck at meditating, but that's kind of subjective and beside the point. So, I sat here for a while, I dunno, probably 15 minutes. Got to say, it was like the other times I have meditated, I ended it feeling super chill and relaxed. Of course, it did not magically make me happy, but I think I was already pretty happy the last few times I tried it.
So resolution or whatever for myself: meditate every day. I've only read Thich Nhat Hanh say it a billion and a half times, but it clearly has not sunk in. I just need to make a more concerted effort to pay freaking attention to my life. Especially lately, I've been walking around in some weird daze, listening to music and staring at the ground. It snowed for three days and I only spent maybe 10 seconds actually SEEING the snow. I remembered because...well, I guess because I remember. I actually paid attention to what was happening at that moment and it stuck. I get this weird feeling that I've been avoiding paying attention lately because I just can't bear to pay attention to feeling like shit.
I've had this really awesome thing happening lately where I go to my room to sleep, and end up curled in a ball crying hysterically. Clearly, I am right in the head. Clearly. No, but it really is not fun, as one might imagine. I've been trying to figure out why, since I don't have a shrink to do it for me, and I really think it's that psychotic irrational fear that no one will ever love me. Tell me how I spent the last year getting into Buddhism and yoga and self-discovery and all that jazz, only to be 14 again and think I'm unlovable. I mean, REALLY. How does that happen? So I sit there and think back to how it was over a year now since someone actually loved me (not that long in the grand scheme of things) and I can't help but freak out about whether I made some horrible mistake (I didn't). But I can't stop it, so I just mildly hyperventilate and wonder if all that last year broke me somehow. I'm not the same person I was then, and I thought this was good, it really is good, but then I also walk around like a zombie half the time. I guess professionals would call that depression, but blah.
I just don't get how this happens in my brain. I distinctly recall everything BEFORE my birthday being all zen and happy and athletic and healthy, and then everything AFTER my birthday has somehow erased that and I'm an antisocial shut-in who cries a lot. This can't be normal, right? siigh. I just feel really broken, or something, and lacking self-worth...attractive qualities, I know. Which should be a good indication of how I feel about this post... ugh
I'm just going to keep throwing myself into new/old pursuits: learning knitting and Chinese, reading better books than Twilight, expanding my cooking, meditating every single day, forcing myself to socialize more. I've got to believe that I will feel normal again soon.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Return to Innocence
Hello dear blog,
Alas, it has been quite some time since I graced you with my presence and don't think for an instant that I forgot about you. Every day, I've been plagued with the guilt of my abandonment of you. Every day, I keep wishing and hoping for some inspiration to strike, some flash of insight that will give me a topic to expound upon within your illustrious 'pages.' And yet, every day you weep silently to yourself...your creator has left you. He built you up from scratch and thousands of lines of html (which He doesn't write because Blogger does it for him) and then left you like some cheap hooker on the side of the road after having his way with you for these longyears months.
Now you know how mankind feels about God. I mean, honestly.
Fear not, kind blog. I have returned, brimming with wit and charm, overflowing with depth and clarity into the trueness of the world around us. It is within you, of all the free webspaces in existence, that I choose to leave my mark on this cruel, cruel world. Much like a dog pissing on a tree, so I shall piss forth my wisdom unto you. I shall chronicle my triumphant return to the glories of my youth and spend the remainder of October 2008 honing my already razor-sharp skills in preparation for NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year Jon Finally Accomplishes Something, Anything, For God's Sake Do Something With Your Life, Man!
No one knows, least of all me, what direction this blog will take. Most likely it will contain some parts Sarah-Palin hatin' and some parts Gastrointestinal Diary (or, why I am so very, very alone) and maybe some parts random shit that flies out of my head like a way less impressive version of Athena. Any which way you slice it, though, the world (of the Interwebs) is a better place for my being in it.
Perhaps someday a future people will dig up the bones of our civilization and discover my blog over all others (and pray to whatever you pray to that they don't find Perez Hilton first..).
This is a topic I'd like to return to, but for now, I must go download Enigma.
Yours, ever and always,
Jon
Alas, it has been quite some time since I graced you with my presence and don't think for an instant that I forgot about you. Every day, I've been plagued with the guilt of my abandonment of you. Every day, I keep wishing and hoping for some inspiration to strike, some flash of insight that will give me a topic to expound upon within your illustrious 'pages.' And yet, every day you weep silently to yourself...your creator has left you. He built you up from scratch and thousands of lines of html (which He doesn't write because Blogger does it for him) and then left you like some cheap hooker on the side of the road after having his way with you for these long
Now you know how mankind feels about God. I mean, honestly.
Fear not, kind blog. I have returned, brimming with wit and charm, overflowing with depth and clarity into the trueness of the world around us. It is within you, of all the free webspaces in existence, that I choose to leave my mark on this cruel, cruel world. Much like a dog pissing on a tree, so I shall piss forth my wisdom unto you. I shall chronicle my triumphant return to the glories of my youth and spend the remainder of October 2008 honing my already razor-sharp skills in preparation for NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year Jon Finally Accomplishes Something, Anything, For God's Sake Do Something With Your Life, Man!
No one knows, least of all me, what direction this blog will take. Most likely it will contain some parts Sarah-Palin hatin' and some parts Gastrointestinal Diary (or, why I am so very, very alone) and maybe some parts random shit that flies out of my head like a way less impressive version of Athena. Any which way you slice it, though, the world (of the Interwebs) is a better place for my being in it.
Perhaps someday a future people will dig up the bones of our civilization and discover my blog over all others (and pray to whatever you pray to that they don't find Perez Hilton first..).
This is a topic I'd like to return to, but for now, I must go download Enigma.
Yours, ever and always,
Jon
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Impressions: Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II
Here's an impression for you, loyal readers of this here blog: This game is shit.
I mean, really awful. So bad that you are literally (and figuratively, if that is even possible) better off renting Xanadu and dancing around your apartment like a freak on speed than renting this game and hoping for more than the easy 10 achievement points gathered from the first stage, along with a healthy dose of boredom. Ok, so I perservered through the second stage (in hopes of getting more Gamerscore), but while I held out through two (count 'em, two!) playthroughs of Eternal Sonata, I seriously could not bring myself to continue with this game. It was insanely laggy, as though I was playing online in a dial-up connection, even though it was single player and not online. And when the Xbox can barely run your totally mediocre game, something is horribly horribly wrong.
Beyond the lag that made my army stutter across the screen, the game was just plain boring as all hell. I was bored, my roommates were bored, even my Xbox360 was emitting a high-pitched plaintive wail, begging me to release it from the torment of running this game. Or maybe that was just the bastardized version of the excellent LOTR soudntrack, crying into its milk. At the end of the second stage, a "Watcher" rose up from the ground to assault my army. It was a giant squid thing (like the one outside of the Mines of Moria in the first movie) and apparently it summoned a lake with it when it rose from the depths of a snowy mountain. Riiight. Regardless, I was clearly meant to use archers to attack it, as it had flailing limbs that threw any of my foot soldiers across the screen if they got remotely close to it. Unfortunately, there was almost no way to tell the archers from the foot soldiers because the screen was so ridiculously jumbled, and even when I did, I am not sure there was even a way to select all of my archers to make them attack it. What I ended up having to do was move all my guys far enough away that the foot soldiers stopped committing suicide and the archers got bored and moved forward automatically to shoot the squid. Ghey. What's the point of me playing if I have to manipulate the AI to play?
So, I finished the first two stages, getting the achievements for completing all objectives for each stage, plus the one for buying my first power. 15 points and the game took 5 days to get to me. OMG GameFly, sometimes you make it so easy to hate you. I went and wrote a bad review of the game so that others are not suckered in by that 6.7 rating I saw. 6.7 my lily white ass.
Here's to the next game being better. Oh wait, it's DMC4 (for xbox 360 this time!!). Of course it will be better.
P.S. - My boss thinks I'm hot.
I mean, really awful. So bad that you are literally (and figuratively, if that is even possible) better off renting Xanadu and dancing around your apartment like a freak on speed than renting this game and hoping for more than the easy 10 achievement points gathered from the first stage, along with a healthy dose of boredom. Ok, so I perservered through the second stage (in hopes of getting more Gamerscore), but while I held out through two (count 'em, two!) playthroughs of Eternal Sonata, I seriously could not bring myself to continue with this game. It was insanely laggy, as though I was playing online in a dial-up connection, even though it was single player and not online. And when the Xbox can barely run your totally mediocre game, something is horribly horribly wrong.
Beyond the lag that made my army stutter across the screen, the game was just plain boring as all hell. I was bored, my roommates were bored, even my Xbox360 was emitting a high-pitched plaintive wail, begging me to release it from the torment of running this game. Or maybe that was just the bastardized version of the excellent LOTR soudntrack, crying into its milk. At the end of the second stage, a "Watcher" rose up from the ground to assault my army. It was a giant squid thing (like the one outside of the Mines of Moria in the first movie) and apparently it summoned a lake with it when it rose from the depths of a snowy mountain. Riiight. Regardless, I was clearly meant to use archers to attack it, as it had flailing limbs that threw any of my foot soldiers across the screen if they got remotely close to it. Unfortunately, there was almost no way to tell the archers from the foot soldiers because the screen was so ridiculously jumbled, and even when I did, I am not sure there was even a way to select all of my archers to make them attack it. What I ended up having to do was move all my guys far enough away that the foot soldiers stopped committing suicide and the archers got bored and moved forward automatically to shoot the squid. Ghey. What's the point of me playing if I have to manipulate the AI to play?
So, I finished the first two stages, getting the achievements for completing all objectives for each stage, plus the one for buying my first power. 15 points and the game took 5 days to get to me. OMG GameFly, sometimes you make it so easy to hate you. I went and wrote a bad review of the game so that others are not suckered in by that 6.7 rating I saw. 6.7 my lily white ass.
Here's to the next game being better. Oh wait, it's DMC4 (for xbox 360 this time!!). Of course it will be better.
P.S. - My boss thinks I'm hot.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Gamerscore, or Someone Help Me
My name is Jonathan Singer and I have a problem.
I'm totally addicted to collecting Gamerscore. I know this is bad. Everything about it feels wrong. My recent readings on Buddhism have been telling me that collecting things is a bad thing, representing the attachment which leads inevitably to suffering. (More on Buddhism at some later time.) But it's a little sick, the time and effort I will put into eking out just a few more points in a game.
Case in point: Eternal Sonata.
I have had this game out from Gamefly since 2/21/08. I realize that it is a JRPG, and those tend to take a long-ass time to finish. But I should have long since sent this game back to the hell from whence it came, freeing up that spot on my Queue for other, better games (like the recently shipped Orange Box, though I question whether I will play any of Half-Life 2. I tend not to like getting involved in things part-way through, hence my not watching season 4 of BSG when it starts this Friday, because I'm still not done with Season 2, let alone started and finished Season 3). I mean, I already wrote about having finished Eternal Sonata and gotten the 300 and change achievement points that are possible on a first playthrough.
Of course, the game was made by a bunch of sick Japanese sadists, who require you to play through the Encore mode (basically New Game +, except you start back at level 1, with none of your equipment and the enemies all have twice the HP and 1.5 times the strength and defense) in order to get the other 600some points. This is awful. Who thought of this?
[Ed. note - At the same time, I have to grudgingly give the developers respect for making the second playthrough punishingly difficult. Once you got the timing of counterattacks and blocks down in the first playthrough, it was childishly easy. I could wipe out even the bosses that my walkthrough told me were really challenging. Really challenging for people who suck at video games, but not really challenging for me. I am a master. Well, this was before I played Encore and had Captain Dolce (oh the names are so awesome, so awesome. {cf. Polka}) sweep the floor with my bloomer-covered ass. I find myself again looking at how the course of the game has been changed forever, which is how I felt every time I got a new party level and found that the battle system was upgraded with some new quirk or other, that totally made things fresh and clean again. It's quite nice to find a game that I've spent so many damn hours on continue to surprise me, even if part of that surprise is discovering the inner depths of anger as I shout obscenities at the TV screen.]
Anyway, basically I've spent another 10 hours or so on this game, after having completed it once, just to get to the first of the second round of achievements, which was worth 79 points. So that's cool, but brings the time vs points ratio to like...7.9 points an hour. Hard math that. I actually busted out a calculator. No, really. I feel I can admit this to you, friendly reader types.
Now, the next few achievements will be easier to get, as I near the end of the game. And one of them is worth a cool 321 points, which is hott as Paris says, but really, it's a bit sick. I've pretty much lost enjoyment in the game and am now playing solely to get the achievements and send the bitch back to Gamefly, never to grace my sexy black Xbox ever agains! My replay(s) of Mass Effect will be far, far more enjoyable, because at least in that game, there are no children at all (yes!) and the adults are, on the whole (Preparation H feels good...), pretty sexalicious. And there is interactive sodomy, as they say.
Irregardless, I feel myself coming close to the end of Eternal Sonata and already, my spirit feels lighter and free. I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself when I don't have a bunch of Japanese schoolchildren babbling at me about Piu Grave and Shade Cometu. I'll miss you kids!
I'm totally addicted to collecting Gamerscore. I know this is bad. Everything about it feels wrong. My recent readings on Buddhism have been telling me that collecting things is a bad thing, representing the attachment which leads inevitably to suffering. (More on Buddhism at some later time.) But it's a little sick, the time and effort I will put into eking out just a few more points in a game.
Case in point: Eternal Sonata.
I have had this game out from Gamefly since 2/21/08. I realize that it is a JRPG, and those tend to take a long-ass time to finish. But I should have long since sent this game back to the hell from whence it came, freeing up that spot on my Queue for other, better games (like the recently shipped Orange Box, though I question whether I will play any of Half-Life 2. I tend not to like getting involved in things part-way through, hence my not watching season 4 of BSG when it starts this Friday, because I'm still not done with Season 2, let alone started and finished Season 3). I mean, I already wrote about having finished Eternal Sonata and gotten the 300 and change achievement points that are possible on a first playthrough.
Of course, the game was made by a bunch of sick Japanese sadists, who require you to play through the Encore mode (basically New Game +, except you start back at level 1, with none of your equipment and the enemies all have twice the HP and 1.5 times the strength and defense) in order to get the other 600some points. This is awful. Who thought of this?
[Ed. note - At the same time, I have to grudgingly give the developers respect for making the second playthrough punishingly difficult. Once you got the timing of counterattacks and blocks down in the first playthrough, it was childishly easy. I could wipe out even the bosses that my walkthrough told me were really challenging. Really challenging for people who suck at video games, but not really challenging for me. I am a master. Well, this was before I played Encore and had Captain Dolce (oh the names are so awesome, so awesome. {cf. Polka}) sweep the floor with my bloomer-covered ass. I find myself again looking at how the course of the game has been changed forever, which is how I felt every time I got a new party level and found that the battle system was upgraded with some new quirk or other, that totally made things fresh and clean again. It's quite nice to find a game that I've spent so many damn hours on continue to surprise me, even if part of that surprise is discovering the inner depths of anger as I shout obscenities at the TV screen.]
Anyway, basically I've spent another 10 hours or so on this game, after having completed it once, just to get to the first of the second round of achievements, which was worth 79 points. So that's cool, but brings the time vs points ratio to like...7.9 points an hour. Hard math that. I actually busted out a calculator. No, really. I feel I can admit this to you, friendly reader types.
Now, the next few achievements will be easier to get, as I near the end of the game. And one of them is worth a cool 321 points, which is hott as Paris says, but really, it's a bit sick. I've pretty much lost enjoyment in the game and am now playing solely to get the achievements and send the bitch back to Gamefly, never to grace my sexy black Xbox ever agains! My replay(s) of Mass Effect will be far, far more enjoyable, because at least in that game, there are no children at all (yes!) and the adults are, on the whole (Preparation H feels good...), pretty sexalicious. And there is interactive sodomy, as they say.
Irregardless, I feel myself coming close to the end of Eternal Sonata and already, my spirit feels lighter and free. I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself when I don't have a bunch of Japanese schoolchildren babbling at me about Piu Grave and Shade Cometu. I'll miss you kids!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Random blahblahblah
Greetings, friends and foes. I don't really have a topic today, but since work is going so insanely slow today, I figured I'd just open up a new blog entry and get to writin'. My poor body is rejecting me today for my poor treatment of it yesterday evening. I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by Community Servings called LifeSavor. My company, lovely people that they are, is a corporate sponsor, so we got 10 tickets to the event. Being the social presence that I am, I'm on the short list of people who get invited to things like this, which is pretty awesome if I do say so.
The event itself was pretty awesome. I'm told it's one of the best fundraisers all year in Boston and I could believe it. The scale of the whole thing was mammoth, and it was all donated by other companies. And it's all for a great cause, too. Community Servings provides meals to people with acute life-threatening illnesses (cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc) who cannot care for themselves.
So the event was about 6 hours long and I got totally drunk, along with everyone who was with me. It was all good though, because we went to Meritage for one of the best meals I've ever had. So delicious.
I realize this is a pretty boring blog entry, because my mind is mush today and I don't have anything all that compelling to say to you kids. One thing, though. I just saw the film Soldier's Girl, about Calpernia Addams and the man she met and fell in love with before he was murdered. It was terribly sad, but a really interesting movie. I find transexuals quite fascinating, and if you're at all intrigued by that, this movie does a great job explaining it. Also, Lee Pace is a great actor who does an awesome job playing Calpernia. Anyhoo, cheque it out, people.
The event itself was pretty awesome. I'm told it's one of the best fundraisers all year in Boston and I could believe it. The scale of the whole thing was mammoth, and it was all donated by other companies. And it's all for a great cause, too. Community Servings provides meals to people with acute life-threatening illnesses (cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc) who cannot care for themselves.
So the event was about 6 hours long and I got totally drunk, along with everyone who was with me. It was all good though, because we went to Meritage for one of the best meals I've ever had. So delicious.
I realize this is a pretty boring blog entry, because my mind is mush today and I don't have anything all that compelling to say to you kids. One thing, though. I just saw the film Soldier's Girl, about Calpernia Addams and the man she met and fell in love with before he was murdered. It was terribly sad, but a really interesting movie. I find transexuals quite fascinating, and if you're at all intrigued by that, this movie does a great job explaining it. Also, Lee Pace is a great actor who does an awesome job playing Calpernia. Anyhoo, cheque it out, people.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Impressions: Eternal Sonata
I know I promised a while back that I would post my impressions of this game when I finished it, and while I did finish it a few weeks back, I have not yet managed to get 1000 gamerpoints from it. Damn you, New Game +!
Anyhoo, I'll go ahead and post what my thoughts are, since the encore mode doesn't add anything new to it. Darn, I just realized that I had totally begun writing a post the other week about gamerscore and Eternal Sonata and then forgotten about it in the blur of a bunch of Japanese people taking over my every waking moment. Now that's over, I find myself to be not quite as un-busy as I suspected I would be. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, the farmer next door always used to tell me.
Regardless, Eternal Sonata. So, I got this game probably 2 months ago now from Gamefly, the greatest invention since Netflix. Ok, well it would be if things did not take like a week to ship to me and if they ever gave me the game I actually wanted rather than things I added months ago, on a whim, like Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. WTFBBQ, I say to that? Why did that ever look appealing to me? My least favorite part of Dragon Quest VIII was the whole monster trainer aspect of it. Ghey. Anyhoo, sent that shit back.
So I get this game and decide to delve into the lovely world of JRPGs. I think this may be my first super Japanese JRPG. I mean, sure, I played Chrono Trigger/Cross and all of the Final Fantasy games, but they aren't quite as insane as this game is. Close, but not quite.
First of all, its premise centers around Chopin dying in his bed of good ol' Consumption. (Side note #1: No one ever looks sick in the game. They are all healthy looking six-twelve year olds.) As Choppy dies, his mind transports to a mystical, cel-shaded world where the terminally ill are granted magical powers. (Side note #2: There is never any explanation of why this is or what it accomplishes. Most interesting about this is that those who can't use "magic" can still, say...shoot arrows into the sky that rain down and heal your group. Or swing a giant 40' sword that has green-glowing chains hanging off of it. Not magical at all.) So Choppy insists that the world is all a dream, and naturally, in the end, it pretty much turns out that it is a dream and he simply needed to accept death in order for the dream to continue on without him. Of course!
So the chapters in the game are named after famouse Chopin pieces. (i.e. - Raindrops, Revolution, Fantasie-Impromptu, etc.) At either the intro or the end of each chapter is basically a slideshow presentation on the period in Chopin's life during which he wrote the piece that accompanies said chapter. This slideshow includes images of various locales in France (where he lived), Poland (where he was from), Austria (where he went to school) and Spain (where he died). I'll take a moment to note here that prior to playing this game, I knew absolutely nothing of Chopin and have not even gone and researched him on his wikipedia page. (Side Note #3: I totally want to do this now, but I'll wait so that my knowledge of his life in this post is based solely on what I learned in the game.) During this slideshow each chapter, the piece is played while subtitles explain what they believe his mental state to have been while he wrote it. For instance, Chapter 2--"Revolution"--in the game is about the main cast of characters going to visit Count Waltz (the big bad) to get him to stop raping the environment and his people (figuratively). In reality, Chopin wrote Revolutionary Etude while at school in Vienna in response to the revolution going on in his homeland. He was always a sickly child and felt a strong connection to the freedom fighters of his homeland. He wrote the piece as a show of his support for them, despite his physical incapabilities.
Now, Chopin's music (as I discovered over the course of the game), hardly needs a personal history for you to feel his emotions through it. A tribute, I suppose, to his insane musicianship. His pieces are brilliantly evocative in and of themselves, but I must say, it's nice to be able to understand a little more about where he was coming from.
The best part for me, is that this was explained to me through a video game. And at that, a JRPG that has some of the cheesiest plot and characters evs. I just can't really picture the last time a video game taught me anything. Well anything of factual reality.
Anyway, it compelled me to go buy an Essential Chopin cd on iTunes, to which I am currently listening. I always talk about wanting to get acquainted with other composers and such, but find it difficult to go out and just blindly buy something of theirs and get into it. Maybe this sort of game would work well to get the average person interested in amazing music. Chopin has the benefit of composing solely for the piano, so there's a lot less happening at the same time than in orchestral music. At the same time, the piano is second only to the voice in my opinion for conveying emotion. All in all, I encourage anyone to at least give the game a try. I realize I didn't write about gameplay at all, but it's actually pretty nice. The battle system is quick and efficient, not wasting any time with unneccesary loading times and it evolves over the course of the entire game up until the very, very end. So at least it always stays fresh and interesting that way. There are far worse ways to spend 20+ hours, and you always have Chopin.
Anyhoo, I'll go ahead and post what my thoughts are, since the encore mode doesn't add anything new to it. Darn, I just realized that I had totally begun writing a post the other week about gamerscore and Eternal Sonata and then forgotten about it in the blur of a bunch of Japanese people taking over my every waking moment. Now that's over, I find myself to be not quite as un-busy as I suspected I would be. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, the farmer next door always used to tell me.
Regardless, Eternal Sonata. So, I got this game probably 2 months ago now from Gamefly, the greatest invention since Netflix. Ok, well it would be if things did not take like a week to ship to me and if they ever gave me the game I actually wanted rather than things I added months ago, on a whim, like Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. WTFBBQ, I say to that? Why did that ever look appealing to me? My least favorite part of Dragon Quest VIII was the whole monster trainer aspect of it. Ghey. Anyhoo, sent that shit back.
So I get this game and decide to delve into the lovely world of JRPGs. I think this may be my first super Japanese JRPG. I mean, sure, I played Chrono Trigger/Cross and all of the Final Fantasy games, but they aren't quite as insane as this game is. Close, but not quite.
First of all, its premise centers around Chopin dying in his bed of good ol' Consumption. (Side note #1: No one ever looks sick in the game. They are all healthy looking six-twelve year olds.) As Choppy dies, his mind transports to a mystical, cel-shaded world where the terminally ill are granted magical powers. (Side note #2: There is never any explanation of why this is or what it accomplishes. Most interesting about this is that those who can't use "magic" can still, say...shoot arrows into the sky that rain down and heal your group. Or swing a giant 40' sword that has green-glowing chains hanging off of it. Not magical at all.) So Choppy insists that the world is all a dream, and naturally, in the end, it pretty much turns out that it is a dream and he simply needed to accept death in order for the dream to continue on without him. Of course!
So the chapters in the game are named after famouse Chopin pieces. (i.e. - Raindrops, Revolution, Fantasie-Impromptu, etc.) At either the intro or the end of each chapter is basically a slideshow presentation on the period in Chopin's life during which he wrote the piece that accompanies said chapter. This slideshow includes images of various locales in France (where he lived), Poland (where he was from), Austria (where he went to school) and Spain (where he died). I'll take a moment to note here that prior to playing this game, I knew absolutely nothing of Chopin and have not even gone and researched him on his wikipedia page. (Side Note #3: I totally want to do this now, but I'll wait so that my knowledge of his life in this post is based solely on what I learned in the game.) During this slideshow each chapter, the piece is played while subtitles explain what they believe his mental state to have been while he wrote it. For instance, Chapter 2--"Revolution"--in the game is about the main cast of characters going to visit Count Waltz (the big bad) to get him to stop raping the environment and his people (figuratively). In reality, Chopin wrote Revolutionary Etude while at school in Vienna in response to the revolution going on in his homeland. He was always a sickly child and felt a strong connection to the freedom fighters of his homeland. He wrote the piece as a show of his support for them, despite his physical incapabilities.
Now, Chopin's music (as I discovered over the course of the game), hardly needs a personal history for you to feel his emotions through it. A tribute, I suppose, to his insane musicianship. His pieces are brilliantly evocative in and of themselves, but I must say, it's nice to be able to understand a little more about where he was coming from.
The best part for me, is that this was explained to me through a video game. And at that, a JRPG that has some of the cheesiest plot and characters evs. I just can't really picture the last time a video game taught me anything. Well anything of factual reality.
Anyway, it compelled me to go buy an Essential Chopin cd on iTunes, to which I am currently listening. I always talk about wanting to get acquainted with other composers and such, but find it difficult to go out and just blindly buy something of theirs and get into it. Maybe this sort of game would work well to get the average person interested in amazing music. Chopin has the benefit of composing solely for the piano, so there's a lot less happening at the same time than in orchestral music. At the same time, the piano is second only to the voice in my opinion for conveying emotion. All in all, I encourage anyone to at least give the game a try. I realize I didn't write about gameplay at all, but it's actually pretty nice. The battle system is quick and efficient, not wasting any time with unneccesary loading times and it evolves over the course of the entire game up until the very, very end. So at least it always stays fresh and interesting that way. There are far worse ways to spend 20+ hours, and you always have Chopin.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Why, God, why?
I don't even have the energy to blog about this right now to the full extent that I should.
But honestly, wtf is wrong with the gay community. Can we just take a look at the paragraph he cites about prevention of STDs?:
Preventing STDs is about having good info and resources, knowing your own body, and communicating honestly with yourself and your partners. There are an infinite number of sexual possibilities and contexts, including sex within a relationship, sex with a stranger, and sexwork. Whoever you are, whoever you’re with, and wherever you connect, you deserve respect, a chance to agree on what you’ll do together, and the experience you desire.
Whoever wrote that should probably be shot in the face. Why is it so hard for the gay health leaders to give real, honest, useful advice?
Anyway, fracking retarded. The world's going to shit and I'm staying off sex for the foreseeable future.
But honestly, wtf is wrong with the gay community. Can we just take a look at the paragraph he cites about prevention of STDs?:
Preventing STDs is about having good info and resources, knowing your own body, and communicating honestly with yourself and your partners. There are an infinite number of sexual possibilities and contexts, including sex within a relationship, sex with a stranger, and sexwork. Whoever you are, whoever you’re with, and wherever you connect, you deserve respect, a chance to agree on what you’ll do together, and the experience you desire.
Whoever wrote that should probably be shot in the face. Why is it so hard for the gay health leaders to give real, honest, useful advice?
Anyway, fracking retarded. The world's going to shit and I'm staying off sex for the foreseeable future.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Impressions: Verdi's La Traviata
On Friday, Jase and I went to the latest stop on our musical tour of all that Boston has to offer, Verdi's La Traviata at the Majestic Theatre by Emerson. It was put on by Teatro Lirico D'Europa, a fantastic company that I intend to see again next time they are in town.
Basically, La Traviata's plot was lifted wholesale by Baz Luhrmann for his movie Moulin Rouge. I just spent a bit of time on the wiki entry for that movie and it really re-asserts the fact that Luhrmann is a genius. I mean, taking an artform that is probably not accessible to a lot of people, or at least not widely viewed, and transforming it into something that shows how much emotion modern music can contain. Amazing. Jason and I discussed this during one of the intermissions. I never realized, though, that his idea to use modern music stemmed from Orpheus. He wanted Christian to seem like something of a musical savant, much like Orpheus was.
Anyhoo, La Traviata tells the story of a beautiful young courtesan named Violetta. She leads life of decadence and pleasure, until she falls in love with a man named Alfredo, who convinces her to move to the country and live with him in peace. They do so, until his father arrives and speaks with her privately, urging Violetta to leave Alfredo so as not to disgrace Alfredo's sister. Violetta meanwhile, is dying and feels this is her one chance at love and happiness. Ultimately, she decides to sacrifice her happiness for Alfredo's sister and leaves him, saying she is returning to an old lover. He follows her to Paris and cruelly pays her back for their time together in front of the entire party. His father rebukes him for his treatment of her. Later, she is on her deathbed and has received a letter from Alfredo's father saying that he explained everything to his son and they are both on their way to see her and atone for their mistakes. Alfredo arrives and Violetta sings a duet with him, imagining their future happiness. She decides to thank God at church and relapses, falling to the floor. Alfredo's father arrives and embraces her as his daughter. Violetta suddenly feels renewed and her pain disappears. She stands and embraces everyone, singing about her miraculous recovery. She faces the audience, turns her head to the heavens, the lights dim and a golden spotlight shines on her as she collapses to the floor, dead.
Basically, it's the saddest thing I have seen in a super long time. I wept when Giorgio (the father) compelled her to leave her love and I really wept when she was dying after finally being reunited with her love.
Overall though, the opera examines the cruel way that a woman in her position was treated. How society was happy to use her for pleasure and then discard her as though she did not deserve to be treated with respect and compassion. She knowingly sacrificed her final chance at happiness to protect the chances of a girl who is not even a character in the opera. Alfredo's sister never makes an appearance, but for some reason, by virtue of not being a courtesan, she is presumed an innocent, while Violetta earns no such compassion. Well, not by most anyway. Alfredo's father seems to realize it only after Violetta so passionately sings of her sacrifice, and even then continues to ask it of her.
When he sees how his son treats her, I think the reality sets in for him. He sees that her sacrifice is greater than most will ever make, which in fact makes her more deserving of compassion and love than those on the upper edge of society, who feel she has no worth and is merely a whore.
I learned that Verdi wrote this based on a play by Alexander Dumas: "La dame aux camelias." It was about a real courtesan in Paris who had died within the same generation of him. This was apparently unheard of at the time to write about someone many considered beneath them. It's quite a moving stoy in that way, that he felt passionate enough about her worth that he wanted to immortalize her in one of the great "high society" art forms. And who wouldn't be moved by a story like that?
Basically, La Traviata's plot was lifted wholesale by Baz Luhrmann for his movie Moulin Rouge. I just spent a bit of time on the wiki entry for that movie and it really re-asserts the fact that Luhrmann is a genius. I mean, taking an artform that is probably not accessible to a lot of people, or at least not widely viewed, and transforming it into something that shows how much emotion modern music can contain. Amazing. Jason and I discussed this during one of the intermissions. I never realized, though, that his idea to use modern music stemmed from Orpheus. He wanted Christian to seem like something of a musical savant, much like Orpheus was.
Anyhoo, La Traviata tells the story of a beautiful young courtesan named Violetta. She leads life of decadence and pleasure, until she falls in love with a man named Alfredo, who convinces her to move to the country and live with him in peace. They do so, until his father arrives and speaks with her privately, urging Violetta to leave Alfredo so as not to disgrace Alfredo's sister. Violetta meanwhile, is dying and feels this is her one chance at love and happiness. Ultimately, she decides to sacrifice her happiness for Alfredo's sister and leaves him, saying she is returning to an old lover. He follows her to Paris and cruelly pays her back for their time together in front of the entire party. His father rebukes him for his treatment of her. Later, she is on her deathbed and has received a letter from Alfredo's father saying that he explained everything to his son and they are both on their way to see her and atone for their mistakes. Alfredo arrives and Violetta sings a duet with him, imagining their future happiness. She decides to thank God at church and relapses, falling to the floor. Alfredo's father arrives and embraces her as his daughter. Violetta suddenly feels renewed and her pain disappears. She stands and embraces everyone, singing about her miraculous recovery. She faces the audience, turns her head to the heavens, the lights dim and a golden spotlight shines on her as she collapses to the floor, dead.
Basically, it's the saddest thing I have seen in a super long time. I wept when Giorgio (the father) compelled her to leave her love and I really wept when she was dying after finally being reunited with her love.
Overall though, the opera examines the cruel way that a woman in her position was treated. How society was happy to use her for pleasure and then discard her as though she did not deserve to be treated with respect and compassion. She knowingly sacrificed her final chance at happiness to protect the chances of a girl who is not even a character in the opera. Alfredo's sister never makes an appearance, but for some reason, by virtue of not being a courtesan, she is presumed an innocent, while Violetta earns no such compassion. Well, not by most anyway. Alfredo's father seems to realize it only after Violetta so passionately sings of her sacrifice, and even then continues to ask it of her.
When he sees how his son treats her, I think the reality sets in for him. He sees that her sacrifice is greater than most will ever make, which in fact makes her more deserving of compassion and love than those on the upper edge of society, who feel she has no worth and is merely a whore.
I learned that Verdi wrote this based on a play by Alexander Dumas: "La dame aux camelias." It was about a real courtesan in Paris who had died within the same generation of him. This was apparently unheard of at the time to write about someone many considered beneath them. It's quite a moving stoy in that way, that he felt passionate enough about her worth that he wanted to immortalize her in one of the great "high society" art forms. And who wouldn't be moved by a story like that?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Mass Effect, Part 1
Howdy partners,
I figured I would just keep a lil' diary to bring everyone up to speed on my progress through Mass Effect and the elaborate universe within.
Just a few short days ago, I surpassed where I had been previously in the game--just about to finish up the Citadel section. This was good, as I had seen this first bit played as both a Paragon (goody-two-shoes) and Renegade (giant evil ho), so I wanted to see what happened next. New space dramz!
And boy, oh boy, did I get space dramz! After basically re-creating the woman I had made on Brennon's Xbox (only hotter, and with red lipstick...and evil), I toyed with the idea of pursuing hottie Kaidan, but then decided that obvs lesbian sex would be superior, especially if that Fox newscast was right and I could decide exactly what each person did to the other! Hot sexy minigame! So I nipped Kaidan in the bud and told him to keep his personal feelings to his damn self cause I was having NONE OF IT! None, you hear me? And since my character is a full biotic and Liara (the lesbian alien wench!) is a full biotic, I decided I needed some combat strength to fight the hordes of aliens and eeeevil machines I was sure to face on my galactic travels. Thus, I brought along a little woman named Ashley.
Ashley was totally miscast in the voice acting. She should have been voiced by Wanda Sykes. And I'll tell you why, reader-folk. Because Ashley has a (totally incredible) habit of proclaiming, "Daaaamn!" just the way Wanda Sykes does. It's amazing. Plz go buy this game right now if you don't own it, so that you too can be amused by shouting, "Daaaamn! Commanda' Shepahd! That alien's face is whack!" And in most instances, it's true. That alien's face probably is pretty darn whack. Also, Ashley is a total butch and loves to chime in while my evil ho is talking by pointing her gun at people and saying, "You want a bullet through the head? Back down!" You tell 'em,Soulja Boy Wanda!
In other Mass Effect news, my lesbian relationship with Liara is progressing nicely. I'm afraid to snub her by being my typical evil self, so I play it totally nice only with her, and then on the side, manipulate people into killing one another. It's actually quite fun when you get the hang of it, though I had reservations at first, cause my ho is REALLY mean. She constantly tells people to shut the hell up and give her money and has (once or twice) brutally murdered someone who dared oppose her.
Liara though, is a lovely woman who stands really close to me and says how much it means to her that I saved her sorry ass on that crumbling ruin. Plz. When does mama get some lovin'?
I'm almost done with my second main mission since leaving the Citadel and you know what that means! Well, maybe you don't. But it means that I get to have another conversation to bring me one step closer to finding the lesbian within, and that's never a bad thing. I want my character to be able to appreciate the wonders of the female anatomy, not run screaming from it.
Achievements so far: 75 pts. Pretty pathetic, to be sure, but it's a start. I haven't yet gotten to Two Worlds, which will no doubt be a frolic in the land of suck, but I'm seasoned at that game now. With luck, someone has found new ways to cheat and make it easier to get the achievements. I don't relish the idea of playing through it for another go, because the first go...pretty bad. Maybe they patched it and fixed the bugginess. Who knows!?
Stay tuned for part two, in which I save some more stupid aliens, kill some more stupid machines and come closer to unraveling a mystery that will change the course of the game...forever!
I figured I would just keep a lil' diary to bring everyone up to speed on my progress through Mass Effect and the elaborate universe within.
Just a few short days ago, I surpassed where I had been previously in the game--just about to finish up the Citadel section. This was good, as I had seen this first bit played as both a Paragon (goody-two-shoes) and Renegade (giant evil ho), so I wanted to see what happened next. New space dramz!
And boy, oh boy, did I get space dramz! After basically re-creating the woman I had made on Brennon's Xbox (only hotter, and with red lipstick...and evil), I toyed with the idea of pursuing hottie Kaidan, but then decided that obvs lesbian sex would be superior, especially if that Fox newscast was right and I could decide exactly what each person did to the other! Hot sexy minigame! So I nipped Kaidan in the bud and told him to keep his personal feelings to his damn self cause I was having NONE OF IT! None, you hear me? And since my character is a full biotic and Liara (the lesbian alien wench!) is a full biotic, I decided I needed some combat strength to fight the hordes of aliens and eeeevil machines I was sure to face on my galactic travels. Thus, I brought along a little woman named Ashley.
Ashley was totally miscast in the voice acting. She should have been voiced by Wanda Sykes. And I'll tell you why, reader-folk. Because Ashley has a (totally incredible) habit of proclaiming, "Daaaamn!" just the way Wanda Sykes does. It's amazing. Plz go buy this game right now if you don't own it, so that you too can be amused by shouting, "Daaaamn! Commanda' Shepahd! That alien's face is whack!" And in most instances, it's true. That alien's face probably is pretty darn whack. Also, Ashley is a total butch and loves to chime in while my evil ho is talking by pointing her gun at people and saying, "You want a bullet through the head? Back down!" You tell 'em,
In other Mass Effect news, my lesbian relationship with Liara is progressing nicely. I'm afraid to snub her by being my typical evil self, so I play it totally nice only with her, and then on the side, manipulate people into killing one another. It's actually quite fun when you get the hang of it, though I had reservations at first, cause my ho is REALLY mean. She constantly tells people to shut the hell up and give her money and has (once or twice) brutally murdered someone who dared oppose her.
Liara though, is a lovely woman who stands really close to me and says how much it means to her that I saved her sorry ass on that crumbling ruin. Plz. When does mama get some lovin'?
I'm almost done with my second main mission since leaving the Citadel and you know what that means! Well, maybe you don't. But it means that I get to have another conversation to bring me one step closer to finding the lesbian within, and that's never a bad thing. I want my character to be able to appreciate the wonders of the female anatomy, not run screaming from it.
Achievements so far: 75 pts. Pretty pathetic, to be sure, but it's a start. I haven't yet gotten to Two Worlds, which will no doubt be a frolic in the land of suck, but I'm seasoned at that game now. With luck, someone has found new ways to cheat and make it easier to get the achievements. I don't relish the idea of playing through it for another go, because the first go...pretty bad. Maybe they patched it and fixed the bugginess. Who knows!?
Stay tuned for part two, in which I save some more stupid aliens, kill some more stupid machines and come closer to unraveling a mystery that will change the course of the game...forever!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Quick Note on Whininess
I'm here checking up on my Google Reader when I stumble across this lil gem from Towleroad.
Apparently, some guy wore a cut-off T-shirt to his gym in California with "I need a man or a date, serious inquiries only" on it and had his gym membership revoked. Naturally, I decided to go read the comments to see what the gays who read Towleroad had to say about it. True to form, it was mostly split between reasonable people who admitted that wearing that shirt was incredibly retarded and that the guy probably deserved it, and those who cried wolf at what they see as another instance of the supposed "double standard" that exists for gays, as though a similar shirt worn by a straight guy would not garner complaints from women who felt objectified when they are trying to work out.
As someone who goes to the gym fairly often, I can tell you that even without a t-shirt explicitly stating someone's intentions, it is not often that I can go without being confronted with at least one troll who leers at me all through my workout or flashes himself at me in the sauna. This guy said he did it as a gag, but come on. What do you expect the reaction will be when you basically wear a craigslist ad on your shirt advertising your desire to meet someone? That's gross and troll-like. Guys often (rightfully) feel uncomfortable in the locker rooms because there are always dirty old men hanging around longer than necessary; doing something like this does nothing to remove that feeling, and in fact, probably just makes even more people think gays are dirty trolls who come to the gym with the intention to find a date rather than just work out like everyone else.
And I can't stand these stupid people who post on everything on Towleroad crying about how we're so damn oppressed and how this guy should sue the gym and win a huge settlement (which would never happen, given that someone called the gym and found out that he threatened them). I wonder whether he did that after they asked him to remove the shirt. Just because gays have faced oppression and still do in a lot of cases, does not mean we are entitled to wear inappropriate t-shirts and expect that everyone just let us do whatever we want lest we cry prejudice. The real double standard is thinking that you can wear something like that while saying that we're just like everyone else. Obviously, this is not to say that all gays are dirty trolls. I don't go to the gym to pick people up (except maybe my abs instructor...;)
People like this give as bad a name to gays as the old straight men who leer at girls asses as they run on the treadmills or ellipticals. Leave the trolling to Craigslist and the working out to the gym.
Apparently, some guy wore a cut-off T-shirt to his gym in California with "I need a man or a date, serious inquiries only" on it and had his gym membership revoked. Naturally, I decided to go read the comments to see what the gays who read Towleroad had to say about it. True to form, it was mostly split between reasonable people who admitted that wearing that shirt was incredibly retarded and that the guy probably deserved it, and those who cried wolf at what they see as another instance of the supposed "double standard" that exists for gays, as though a similar shirt worn by a straight guy would not garner complaints from women who felt objectified when they are trying to work out.
As someone who goes to the gym fairly often, I can tell you that even without a t-shirt explicitly stating someone's intentions, it is not often that I can go without being confronted with at least one troll who leers at me all through my workout or flashes himself at me in the sauna. This guy said he did it as a gag, but come on. What do you expect the reaction will be when you basically wear a craigslist ad on your shirt advertising your desire to meet someone? That's gross and troll-like. Guys often (rightfully) feel uncomfortable in the locker rooms because there are always dirty old men hanging around longer than necessary; doing something like this does nothing to remove that feeling, and in fact, probably just makes even more people think gays are dirty trolls who come to the gym with the intention to find a date rather than just work out like everyone else.
And I can't stand these stupid people who post on everything on Towleroad crying about how we're so damn oppressed and how this guy should sue the gym and win a huge settlement (which would never happen, given that someone called the gym and found out that he threatened them). I wonder whether he did that after they asked him to remove the shirt. Just because gays have faced oppression and still do in a lot of cases, does not mean we are entitled to wear inappropriate t-shirts and expect that everyone just let us do whatever we want lest we cry prejudice. The real double standard is thinking that you can wear something like that while saying that we're just like everyone else. Obviously, this is not to say that all gays are dirty trolls. I don't go to the gym to pick people up (except maybe my abs instructor...;)
People like this give as bad a name to gays as the old straight men who leer at girls asses as they run on the treadmills or ellipticals. Leave the trolling to Craigslist and the working out to the gym.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Notes on Lesbians
Happy President's Day, followers of my blog. I trust your weekends involved many strippers and pendulous bosoms.
My weekend started off to a lovely cultured note on Friday evening as Jason and I attended the Handel and Haydn Society's performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 and his Requiem. There was another piece they started with...a very short, albeit quite moving one...but I don't recall the name at the moment. I highly recommend going to see this group perform, as they were incredibly talented. I always love going to the symphony and am determined this year to make it more of a regular occurence. There's something innately satisfying to me to get gussied up and mingle with the sophisticated crowds who frequent Symphony Hall. Though I lack the knowledge of music to really be able to appreciate the finer points of what makes say Mozart's music superior, I do enjoy trying to broaden my understanding along with like-minded people.
Plus, the acoustics in that place are magnificent. There's nothing quite like hearing the angelic sopranos chime in during the middle part of the Confutatis. Or hearing those first measures of the Lacrimosa. Beautiful.
So after we hob-nobbed with Boston's well dressed symphony-goers, we retired to a little Mass Effect and Devil May Cry 4. This was, in short, the foundation upon which our weekend was built, as we spent a LOT of time playing both of these games. And rightfully so, as they are gorgeous games and let us alternate between a fully engaging universe in one and badassery with a go-go gadget demon arm in the other. I highly recommend DMC4 if you have a PS3. To summarize the game in the immortal words of Tara:
"Nero should go swimming. Or something. Naked." - Tara
To which I can only reply, yes...yes he should. Rawr. You know that demon arm has got a few tricks up its sleeve in bed.
Hoo-ey!
So anyway. On Saturday I finally got around to going to my very first Yoga class. And I'm pleased to say that Baby's First Yoga was a wonderful experience. It recalled to me the Zen meditation I did Freshman year of college and sadly got out of the habit of doing. Incredibly relaxing, but a bit more challenging than just sitting on a pillow breathing. I am determined to make it a part of my usual routine because I felt better coming out of that than I ever have after a strenuous workout on the treadmill. I shot Sharon an email afterwards telling her how much I loved it and she suggested some DVDs and books from her instructor, Rodney Yee, so I bought those on Amazon this morning. Super psyched to get them and try them out at home.
So after that, we all went to iParty and bought some stuffs for the Oscar party this weekend. Should be good times. Sunday was a blur of DMC4 and Mass Effect, followed up by A Mighty Heart (which was quite good, especially Angelina's stellar performance) and Moonstruck (with the ever-delightful Olympia Dukakis and Cher). God bless weekend movie marathons.
In other news, I was just introduced to Carrie Underwood's latest video masterpiece: All-American Girl. Please, please go watch this immediately. I died. She's hysterical. I love how tongue-in-cheek she is about everything. Given that she's 100% manufactured pop music, that's a necessity.
Oh, while I'm on the topic, everyone should go buy k.d. lang's new cd, Watershed. She's back with a vengeance with this cd. Truly stunning and her voice sounds better than ever in my opinion. At the very least, check out the live version of her single, I Dream of Spring. She's got a downright sexy voice and is able to carry such emotion in it, which is quite the rarity. I am SO sad that she's gonna be here this weekend and I won't be able to see her. Silly k.d.
Anyhoo, that's all for now people. Back to the grind. On the slate for tonight: laundry, coupled with some exploration of The Citadel in Mass Effect. I have a lot of assignments to do there so that I can get the achievement for having Liara in my party for most of the game. And so I can continue to lesbian-seduce her. Word.
My weekend started off to a lovely cultured note on Friday evening as Jason and I attended the Handel and Haydn Society's performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 and his Requiem. There was another piece they started with...a very short, albeit quite moving one...but I don't recall the name at the moment. I highly recommend going to see this group perform, as they were incredibly talented. I always love going to the symphony and am determined this year to make it more of a regular occurence. There's something innately satisfying to me to get gussied up and mingle with the sophisticated crowds who frequent Symphony Hall. Though I lack the knowledge of music to really be able to appreciate the finer points of what makes say Mozart's music superior, I do enjoy trying to broaden my understanding along with like-minded people.
Plus, the acoustics in that place are magnificent. There's nothing quite like hearing the angelic sopranos chime in during the middle part of the Confutatis. Or hearing those first measures of the Lacrimosa. Beautiful.
So after we hob-nobbed with Boston's well dressed symphony-goers, we retired to a little Mass Effect and Devil May Cry 4. This was, in short, the foundation upon which our weekend was built, as we spent a LOT of time playing both of these games. And rightfully so, as they are gorgeous games and let us alternate between a fully engaging universe in one and badassery with a go-go gadget demon arm in the other. I highly recommend DMC4 if you have a PS3. To summarize the game in the immortal words of Tara:
"Nero should go swimming. Or something. Naked." - Tara
To which I can only reply, yes...yes he should. Rawr. You know that demon arm has got a few tricks up its sleeve in bed.
Hoo-ey!
So anyway. On Saturday I finally got around to going to my very first Yoga class. And I'm pleased to say that Baby's First Yoga was a wonderful experience. It recalled to me the Zen meditation I did Freshman year of college and sadly got out of the habit of doing. Incredibly relaxing, but a bit more challenging than just sitting on a pillow breathing. I am determined to make it a part of my usual routine because I felt better coming out of that than I ever have after a strenuous workout on the treadmill. I shot Sharon an email afterwards telling her how much I loved it and she suggested some DVDs and books from her instructor, Rodney Yee, so I bought those on Amazon this morning. Super psyched to get them and try them out at home.
So after that, we all went to iParty and bought some stuffs for the Oscar party this weekend. Should be good times. Sunday was a blur of DMC4 and Mass Effect, followed up by A Mighty Heart (which was quite good, especially Angelina's stellar performance) and Moonstruck (with the ever-delightful Olympia Dukakis and Cher). God bless weekend movie marathons.
In other news, I was just introduced to Carrie Underwood's latest video masterpiece: All-American Girl. Please, please go watch this immediately. I died. She's hysterical. I love how tongue-in-cheek she is about everything. Given that she's 100% manufactured pop music, that's a necessity.
Oh, while I'm on the topic, everyone should go buy k.d. lang's new cd, Watershed. She's back with a vengeance with this cd. Truly stunning and her voice sounds better than ever in my opinion. At the very least, check out the live version of her single, I Dream of Spring. She's got a downright sexy voice and is able to carry such emotion in it, which is quite the rarity. I am SO sad that she's gonna be here this weekend and I won't be able to see her. Silly k.d.
Anyhoo, that's all for now people. Back to the grind. On the slate for tonight: laundry, coupled with some exploration of The Citadel in Mass Effect. I have a lot of assignments to do there so that I can get the achievement for having Liara in my party for most of the game. And so I can continue to lesbian-seduce her. Word.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Idiots
I don't have anything particularly compelling to add to the discussion floating around surrounding the shooter at the NIU killings, but this headline caught my eyes just now.
Police: Illinois campus gunman reportedly off medication
I love that people this obviously unstable somehow think it's a swell idea to just stop taking the medication they are prescribed. And his friends knew he had stopped taking it and had begun acting erratically and they apparently decided not to do anything about it. One would think that if someone needs medication not to go shoot up a school, there should be some plan devised to make sure they are taking it and don't decide to see what happens when they go off their meds.
Also, his eyebrows are freakishly groomed. Weird.
Anyhoo, that is all. Thoughts go out to the slain and their families. Let's hope this impels some people to maybe not vote for John McCain, who believes the right to bear arms is something we have a "sacred duty to protect." Douchebag.
Police: Illinois campus gunman reportedly off medication
I love that people this obviously unstable somehow think it's a swell idea to just stop taking the medication they are prescribed. And his friends knew he had stopped taking it and had begun acting erratically and they apparently decided not to do anything about it. One would think that if someone needs medication not to go shoot up a school, there should be some plan devised to make sure they are taking it and don't decide to see what happens when they go off their meds.
Also, his eyebrows are freakishly groomed. Weird.
Anyhoo, that is all. Thoughts go out to the slain and their families. Let's hope this impels some people to maybe not vote for John McCain, who believes the right to bear arms is something we have a "sacred duty to protect." Douchebag.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thoughts on Atonement
So the kids and I saw Atonement last night because the Lowes at Boston Common randomly decided to stop airing No Country for Old Men. Whatevs, Javier Bardem! Manbob.
I've been rather strongly resisting going to see this movie, despite loving the first (and only) Ian McEwan book I read, Saturday. I mean, that novel was delightfully intelligent and his prose is incredible, but this movie stars Kiera Knightley. Typically...not the biggest KK fan. She's got that whole Zoolander face going on and tends never to eat, which bothers me a bit. But she actually looks quite beautiful in this movie, and were I inclined towards cross-dressing, I'd be very jealous that I don't own her fantastic green dress. Hot mama. And come on, sex against the stacks, amazing.
So anyhoo, saw that movie last night, which far surpassed my expectations of it. I get the feeling, just from having read Saturday, that they probably upped the schmaltz factor, but they might not have. It just seems that epic love story ain't really his bag. If it is, then kudos to McEwan for being very versatile. Yay him. It's shot wonderfully as well, with lots of focus on the characters' eyes. Appropriate, given the point of the movie. I'm glad I didn't have the ending ruined for me ahead of time, because it had quite an impact as you're watching and suddenly Vanessa Redgrave graces the screen. Seeing her in this and Evening (which was fairly crappy all and all) still makes me want to go rent everything she's been in. I think she's gorgeous and her eyes are wicked, plus she's got some hardcore acting chops on her.
Saoirse Ronan is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this film, which in a year without the much-lauded performance by Cate Blanchett would pretty much be a shoe-in given how much the Academy loves to give that award to debutantes. Still though, she was very impressive for such a young woman. I keep trying to write what was so great about her performance, but I can't really find the words for it. She just managed to take the part (which, admittedly, was great) and invest it with even more depth and complexity, but all in a very subdued sort of way. Very awesome, and worth seeing the movie if only for her.
That's about all I've got for Atonement at the moment.
In other news, it's Valentine's Day, so enjoy that all of you with peeps. I will be enjoying it with some gym action (the workout kind), some Xbox360 purchasing action, and a giant heart-shaped brownie courtesy of TBell. And maybe an episode or two of Lost. And maybe five hours of Mass Effect once everyone goes to bed. I need to work on buffing up my gamerscore from scratch. Sad day! It'll be good times though.
Til next time, kids.
I've been rather strongly resisting going to see this movie, despite loving the first (and only) Ian McEwan book I read, Saturday. I mean, that novel was delightfully intelligent and his prose is incredible, but this movie stars Kiera Knightley. Typically...not the biggest KK fan. She's got that whole Zoolander face going on and tends never to eat, which bothers me a bit. But she actually looks quite beautiful in this movie, and were I inclined towards cross-dressing, I'd be very jealous that I don't own her fantastic green dress. Hot mama. And come on, sex against the stacks, amazing.
So anyhoo, saw that movie last night, which far surpassed my expectations of it. I get the feeling, just from having read Saturday, that they probably upped the schmaltz factor, but they might not have. It just seems that epic love story ain't really his bag. If it is, then kudos to McEwan for being very versatile. Yay him. It's shot wonderfully as well, with lots of focus on the characters' eyes. Appropriate, given the point of the movie. I'm glad I didn't have the ending ruined for me ahead of time, because it had quite an impact as you're watching and suddenly Vanessa Redgrave graces the screen. Seeing her in this and Evening (which was fairly crappy all and all) still makes me want to go rent everything she's been in. I think she's gorgeous and her eyes are wicked, plus she's got some hardcore acting chops on her.
Saoirse Ronan is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this film, which in a year without the much-lauded performance by Cate Blanchett would pretty much be a shoe-in given how much the Academy loves to give that award to debutantes. Still though, she was very impressive for such a young woman. I keep trying to write what was so great about her performance, but I can't really find the words for it. She just managed to take the part (which, admittedly, was great) and invest it with even more depth and complexity, but all in a very subdued sort of way. Very awesome, and worth seeing the movie if only for her.
That's about all I've got for Atonement at the moment.
In other news, it's Valentine's Day, so enjoy that all of you with peeps. I will be enjoying it with some gym action (the workout kind), some Xbox360 purchasing action, and a giant heart-shaped brownie courtesy of TBell. And maybe an episode or two of Lost. And maybe five hours of Mass Effect once everyone goes to bed. I need to work on buffing up my gamerscore from scratch. Sad day! It'll be good times though.
Til next time, kids.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Jonathan Day-Lewis
That is my new name, or it will be once I realize my life's ambition: to marry Daniel Day-Lewis. I've totally had a wee bit of a man-crush on him since I saw My Beautiful Laundrette in my Gay and Lesbian Film and Literature course at BU. In it, he plays the gay lover of this Pakistani dude in the United Kingdom. It's a really sweet movie and his character is this lovable little thug who hangs out with the tough kids from the wrong side of the tracks (think The Outsiders) but inside, he has a (gay) heart of gold. Obvs, the movie is incredible not because it is gay, but because it stars one of the greatest actors of our time. I fracking love him, which is why I was oh-so-excited to see There Will Be Blood, despite seeing that it was really long, about oil (zzz) and worst of all, had my beloved Daniel sporting a heinous mustache.
I can't bear mustaches since I made the horrible mistake in middle school of convincing my father to grow one simply to amuse me. He then kept it for a good six months to a year (time is fuzzy when you go that far back, but it certainly felt like forever) despite my and my brother's repeated pleas to him to shave the damn thing off, you were so much better off without it and why god why did you ever listen to us. I think in my heart it was payback for treating his face like a joke. But honestly, how was I to know, I was young and foolish.
So the roommates and I decided to go see There Will Be Blood as part of our effort to see as many Oscar movies before the possibly-nonexistant Oscars as we can. Unfortunately, it seems that every year the Oscars get earlier and earlier and the Oscar movies get later and later. And why is it that filmmakers typically refuse to offer any real "film" during the rest of the year. Must it ALL wait til December? Plus then you have amazingly wonderful movies like Waitress get shat on because movies like Juno happen to come out towards the end of the year and I hate you stupid Academy people. I mean, come on, Juno and gang were cute and all, but Waitress was so so awesome and it took more acting skill for Keri Russell to play that role than it did for Ellen Page to make some well-written quips sound funny. Anyway, /end soapbox.
The point here is that Daniel Day-Lewis was in There Will Be Blood, by Paul Thomas Anderson. Now, I'm the first to laud PTA for his amazing direction. He gets incredible performances out of people and typically has the good sense to put super-awesome actors in his movies. I mean, just look at Tom Cruise in Magnolia, Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights and Julianne Moore in both. Amazing. Another common thread is that these movies are insanely long and especially in the case of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, could have done with a bit of heavy-handed editing. Regardless, Blood is entirely worth seeing if only for DDL, who is ridiculous. He is one of those actors I can watch and forget that he's acting because he so totally inhabits the role that he's playing.
His character in this film is basically one of the worst people I can imagine, which has its own charm to be sure, as who doesn't love a good villain. (Side note: I was totally trolling IMDB earlier to suggest movies to Jason and I came across Kenneth Branagh by way of Emma Thompson (OMG I LOVE YOU, EMMA!) and he was in Othello with Laurence Fishburne and he played Iago which is my favorite villain EVS. Totally awesome.) Well, actually, I do really enjoy the villain in the video game Heavenly Sword, which Jason is playing right now, because the guy is played by Andy Serkis and he's totally insane, just like Iago. That used to be my favorite Shakespeare play, and still probably is. I wish they'd put that on around here somewhere so I could go see it.
but yes, you should all go see Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Faithful Readers, because at one point, he froths at the mouth and you see spittle drop to the floor. And that, my friends, is hot. HOT.
Oh man, Jason is not doing well at the bow chick in Heavenly Sword. He was making the arrow fly all over the place using the capabilities of the SIXAXIS controller, which is the gayest name ever for a controller. GAY. Gay like Captain Apollo is when he rubs my back and calls me lover. That gay.
Oh Nariko you hot ho.
I was going to post this post earlier (not this post, but the one I am about to describe) about some article I saw on CNN about video games desensitizing kids to violence. I mean, it's basically a no-shit sherlock kinda thing, though a lot of other stuff desensitizes people in general to violence, but the real important part of the article was that after having the crackpot scientist guy give his shpiel, they actually gave a well-reasoned counter-argument about how video games are simply the latest scapegoat on the war against violence (har har) and that parents simply need to play an active role in their children's lives. But Kotaku beat me to the punch and now I'd look a fool (a fool I say!!) if I were to post about that. Jesus. I mean, right? Right? Totally right, I know. God.
In other news, I am a bit psychotic with the spending today and bought myself an HDTV and an Xbox 360 to be shipped to my home and work, respectively, this week. Yay. I am so very very excited to have a real television on which to play my PS3, cause currently I am using an OLD OLD TV of Tara's that can't really even be called a TV in good conscience, it is that bad. I mean, really. God. The text on the PS3's subtitles is totally awful. Horrible. But Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is great, cause Nate is a total hottie and it is a super fun game that throws zombie vampire people at you about half-way through. Random, but scary as hell. And fun. yay!
So, soon I will be a real gamer-nerd and have all three major gaming systems plus both major portable gaming systems and a big ass HDTV that I'll no doubt be paying on until I'm old (aka for six months). Word.
Ok, we're off to watch Tomb Raider and imagine Angie playing Nariko in the feature film version of Heavenly Sword.
PS: I totally bought new Lucinda Williams, k.d. lang and that-chick-from-the-new-apple-commerical cds. They are all amazing. Thank you. Go buy everything Lucinda and k.d. have ever recorded. You may thank me later.
I can't bear mustaches since I made the horrible mistake in middle school of convincing my father to grow one simply to amuse me. He then kept it for a good six months to a year (time is fuzzy when you go that far back, but it certainly felt like forever) despite my and my brother's repeated pleas to him to shave the damn thing off, you were so much better off without it and why god why did you ever listen to us. I think in my heart it was payback for treating his face like a joke. But honestly, how was I to know, I was young and foolish.
So the roommates and I decided to go see There Will Be Blood as part of our effort to see as many Oscar movies before the possibly-nonexistant Oscars as we can. Unfortunately, it seems that every year the Oscars get earlier and earlier and the Oscar movies get later and later. And why is it that filmmakers typically refuse to offer any real "film" during the rest of the year. Must it ALL wait til December? Plus then you have amazingly wonderful movies like Waitress get shat on because movies like Juno happen to come out towards the end of the year and I hate you stupid Academy people. I mean, come on, Juno and gang were cute and all, but Waitress was so so awesome and it took more acting skill for Keri Russell to play that role than it did for Ellen Page to make some well-written quips sound funny. Anyway, /end soapbox.
The point here is that Daniel Day-Lewis was in There Will Be Blood, by Paul Thomas Anderson. Now, I'm the first to laud PTA for his amazing direction. He gets incredible performances out of people and typically has the good sense to put super-awesome actors in his movies. I mean, just look at Tom Cruise in Magnolia, Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights and Julianne Moore in both. Amazing. Another common thread is that these movies are insanely long and especially in the case of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, could have done with a bit of heavy-handed editing. Regardless, Blood is entirely worth seeing if only for DDL, who is ridiculous. He is one of those actors I can watch and forget that he's acting because he so totally inhabits the role that he's playing.
His character in this film is basically one of the worst people I can imagine, which has its own charm to be sure, as who doesn't love a good villain. (Side note: I was totally trolling IMDB earlier to suggest movies to Jason and I came across Kenneth Branagh by way of Emma Thompson (OMG I LOVE YOU, EMMA!) and he was in Othello with Laurence Fishburne and he played Iago which is my favorite villain EVS. Totally awesome.) Well, actually, I do really enjoy the villain in the video game Heavenly Sword, which Jason is playing right now, because the guy is played by Andy Serkis and he's totally insane, just like Iago. That used to be my favorite Shakespeare play, and still probably is. I wish they'd put that on around here somewhere so I could go see it.
but yes, you should all go see Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Faithful Readers, because at one point, he froths at the mouth and you see spittle drop to the floor. And that, my friends, is hot. HOT.
Oh man, Jason is not doing well at the bow chick in Heavenly Sword. He was making the arrow fly all over the place using the capabilities of the SIXAXIS controller, which is the gayest name ever for a controller. GAY. Gay like Captain Apollo is when he rubs my back and calls me lover. That gay.
Oh Nariko you hot ho.
I was going to post this post earlier (not this post, but the one I am about to describe) about some article I saw on CNN about video games desensitizing kids to violence. I mean, it's basically a no-shit sherlock kinda thing, though a lot of other stuff desensitizes people in general to violence, but the real important part of the article was that after having the crackpot scientist guy give his shpiel, they actually gave a well-reasoned counter-argument about how video games are simply the latest scapegoat on the war against violence (har har) and that parents simply need to play an active role in their children's lives. But Kotaku beat me to the punch and now I'd look a fool (a fool I say!!) if I were to post about that. Jesus. I mean, right? Right? Totally right, I know. God.
In other news, I am a bit psychotic with the spending today and bought myself an HDTV and an Xbox 360 to be shipped to my home and work, respectively, this week. Yay. I am so very very excited to have a real television on which to play my PS3, cause currently I am using an OLD OLD TV of Tara's that can't really even be called a TV in good conscience, it is that bad. I mean, really. God. The text on the PS3's subtitles is totally awful. Horrible. But Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is great, cause Nate is a total hottie and it is a super fun game that throws zombie vampire people at you about half-way through. Random, but scary as hell. And fun. yay!
So, soon I will be a real gamer-nerd and have all three major gaming systems plus both major portable gaming systems and a big ass HDTV that I'll no doubt be paying on until I'm old (aka for six months). Word.
Ok, we're off to watch Tomb Raider and imagine Angie playing Nariko in the feature film version of Heavenly Sword.
PS: I totally bought new Lucinda Williams, k.d. lang and that-chick-from-the-new-apple-commerical cds. They are all amazing. Thank you. Go buy everything Lucinda and k.d. have ever recorded. You may thank me later.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Parties and pre-gaming
Ok, so I may have pre-gamed a bit too early on this one. I mean, it is only 10:30pm and I am already so fucking drunk that I pretty much better stop now. I should check myself before I wreck myself. Oh, Sparkz and Goldschlager and Vodka. Maybe not the best combination ever.
I just noticed that Blogger now allows you to blog in Persian, which is awesome considering I just saw Persepolis.
Let me introduce my guest blogger: Erika Saldivar! Have at it, Erika!
so here is the thing it is the 70s all over again here tonight and there are the same things they are young people and there are drinks and there are drugs and in the end we still are not sure if we have figured out anything new we are not sure if we have ever figured out everything new - and so what are we left with? we are left with original smiles for new reasons that may seem the same, but in the end it is always the same things that make us smile right. its light. its bright, and most of all through your fake plastic lenses it is sparkling.
And now back to your regularly schedule blogger, Jon. Hello, everyone. I think Erika really hit the nail on the head as it were (sorry, X-tina!). ::Hi says Jason and flashes his penis:: Jason loves to flash his penis. Sorry for all of you conservative folks who may be a little freaked out by my friend's behavior. So we're back to this party that is going on around me. Now I have had a lot of Sparkz and a some vodka in each one that I have had, plus some shots of goldschlager whenever the mood strikes people. This is the party I have been waiting for since early December. I really want to get so drunk I don't know my name when I wake up. Too often, I wake up and the reality of my life sinks in and I realize that I'd rather go back to my dreams, which of late resemble the Land of Thomas Covenant's mind. Maybe someday I will get leprosy and end up there.
Ok, so now there is Abba playing. I would go out and sing some Mamma Mia with everyone, but the last shot of goldschlager is still sitting in my stomach and wanting to come back up. I think if I give it enough time, I will be feeling much better and can go do another dance in the dark like I did with "One Night Only." Look for me on YouTube.
Lilly and Jason took some video of me and Jason (roommate Jason). They are Maryann Scandalis.
Now they are listening to Britney Spears, so I excused myself to take another crack at blogging during the party. My drunkenness is back to normal levels, which is great, but I am now wearing these utterly ridiculous sunglasses. I don't even know to whom they belong, but that's ok. I will just continue to dance and such. I am glad Erika and Bill came. We have not seen them in ages and they are fun people.
Gimme gimme more, gimme gimme. I mean, I understand the sentiment, but while Britney is fun, she is pretty shitty compared to a lot of other artists. I am really enjoying this
Sparks shit. It's so good and alcoholic. yay! God it's Britney hour. I really do not like her that much. I'd much rather we listen to slash dance to Whitney! WHO JUST CAME ON!!!
god I love me some Whitney. So yeah this party is awesome. Too bad for all you suckers that are not here!
HOLLA!
I just noticed that Blogger now allows you to blog in Persian, which is awesome considering I just saw Persepolis.
Let me introduce my guest blogger: Erika Saldivar! Have at it, Erika!
so here is the thing it is the 70s all over again here tonight and there are the same things they are young people and there are drinks and there are drugs and in the end we still are not sure if we have figured out anything new we are not sure if we have ever figured out everything new - and so what are we left with? we are left with original smiles for new reasons that may seem the same, but in the end it is always the same things that make us smile right. its light. its bright, and most of all through your fake plastic lenses it is sparkling.
And now back to your regularly schedule blogger, Jon. Hello, everyone. I think Erika really hit the nail on the head as it were (sorry, X-tina!). ::Hi says Jason and flashes his penis:: Jason loves to flash his penis. Sorry for all of you conservative folks who may be a little freaked out by my friend's behavior. So we're back to this party that is going on around me. Now I have had a lot of Sparkz and a some vodka in each one that I have had, plus some shots of goldschlager whenever the mood strikes people. This is the party I have been waiting for since early December. I really want to get so drunk I don't know my name when I wake up. Too often, I wake up and the reality of my life sinks in and I realize that I'd rather go back to my dreams, which of late resemble the Land of Thomas Covenant's mind. Maybe someday I will get leprosy and end up there.
Ok, so now there is Abba playing. I would go out and sing some Mamma Mia with everyone, but the last shot of goldschlager is still sitting in my stomach and wanting to come back up. I think if I give it enough time, I will be feeling much better and can go do another dance in the dark like I did with "One Night Only." Look for me on YouTube.
Lilly and Jason took some video of me and Jason (roommate Jason). They are Maryann Scandalis.
Now they are listening to Britney Spears, so I excused myself to take another crack at blogging during the party. My drunkenness is back to normal levels, which is great, but I am now wearing these utterly ridiculous sunglasses. I don't even know to whom they belong, but that's ok. I will just continue to dance and such. I am glad Erika and Bill came. We have not seen them in ages and they are fun people.
Gimme gimme more, gimme gimme. I mean, I understand the sentiment, but while Britney is fun, she is pretty shitty compared to a lot of other artists. I am really enjoying this
Sparks shit. It's so good and alcoholic. yay! God it's Britney hour. I really do not like her that much. I'd much rather we listen to slash dance to Whitney! WHO JUST CAME ON!!!
god I love me some Whitney. So yeah this party is awesome. Too bad for all you suckers that are not here!
HOLLA!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Mass Effect Retardation - UPDATE!
Hello, reader, and welcome to my corner of the intarwebs. As you may have noted yesterday, I got a little heated in my discussion of Fox News' treatment of the video game, Mass Effect. Seeing as I discovered the story via several gaming industry blogs, I was hardly the only one to flip out over the unfair treatment the game received on Fox. But today, I come bearing happy news. Not only has the gaming community pulled a stupendous prank on the Amazon page for Cooper Lawrence's new book, The Cult of Perfection, but EA (the company that owns Bioware) released a statement urging Fox to clean up its story and directly refutes the lies that were claimed about Mass Effect.
First, the prank. Seeing as Lawrence spent the Fox segment basically spouting total shit about a game she admitted to never having played, gamers have flooded the Amazon reviews section for her books with one-star reviews in which the comments are typically along the lines of, "There's full on sex that is inappropriate for the children this book targets. I've never read it, but I feel secure in making judgments about it." There have been over 500 of these reviews in the last few days. Now, obviously, there's a level of immaturity in doing something like this, but at the same time, it's nice to see some action taken against someone so dangerous to open discussion. Like I said yesterday, I'm happy to watch a group of people with valid, researched opinions on something, but if these negative reviews mean than 100 less people will pick up her crap and think it's valid, then I'm a happy camper.
Secondly, EA released a great statement in which they attack Fox News' assertion that the game has "full digital nudity" (which it doesn't), interactive sex (which it doesn't) and that it is marketed to kids (which it isn't). Even though it's a video game distributor that is doing the defending, it's always nice to see someone with visibility take a stand to defend the integrity of gaming. The guy from EA pointed out that the side-boob and profile shots of the 'sex' scene are no more risque than you see on primetime television, and certainly less than seen in Fox shows like The O.C. and Family Guy, which is a very good point. Also, he points out that the ratings system on video games is more effective than say, the ratings system on TVs. This is also a great point, seeing as network TV is free to watch for anyone with a television. A game like Mass Effect is hardly available to the vast majority of Americans, seeing as there are only around 17.7 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide as of a few weeks ago.
And that, as they say, is that (for now) on Mass Effect. I will be sure to update all of you on my final feelings about the game once I get an HDTV and an Xbox and can finally play through the whole thing. Until then, I'll have to find something else to write about on here.
First, the prank. Seeing as Lawrence spent the Fox segment basically spouting total shit about a game she admitted to never having played, gamers have flooded the Amazon reviews section for her books with one-star reviews in which the comments are typically along the lines of, "There's full on sex that is inappropriate for the children this book targets. I've never read it, but I feel secure in making judgments about it." There have been over 500 of these reviews in the last few days. Now, obviously, there's a level of immaturity in doing something like this, but at the same time, it's nice to see some action taken against someone so dangerous to open discussion. Like I said yesterday, I'm happy to watch a group of people with valid, researched opinions on something, but if these negative reviews mean than 100 less people will pick up her crap and think it's valid, then I'm a happy camper.
Secondly, EA released a great statement in which they attack Fox News' assertion that the game has "full digital nudity" (which it doesn't), interactive sex (which it doesn't) and that it is marketed to kids (which it isn't). Even though it's a video game distributor that is doing the defending, it's always nice to see someone with visibility take a stand to defend the integrity of gaming. The guy from EA pointed out that the side-boob and profile shots of the 'sex' scene are no more risque than you see on primetime television, and certainly less than seen in Fox shows like The O.C. and Family Guy, which is a very good point. Also, he points out that the ratings system on video games is more effective than say, the ratings system on TVs. This is also a great point, seeing as network TV is free to watch for anyone with a television. A game like Mass Effect is hardly available to the vast majority of Americans, seeing as there are only around 17.7 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide as of a few weeks ago.
And that, as they say, is that (for now) on Mass Effect. I will be sure to update all of you on my final feelings about the game once I get an HDTV and an Xbox and can finally play through the whole thing. Until then, I'll have to find something else to write about on here.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Mass Effect Retardation
As usual, my punniness amuses me. Yesterday, I ran across this article in my daily web-browsings, and it (as most articles about video games in the mainstream news tend to) got my panties in a twist. Of course, it's probably too kind to call Fox "News," but they do have a lot of viewers who love to get spood-fed this crap about video games and it pisses me off.
Now, I haven't had the opportunity yet to play through the entirety of Mass Effect yet, though back in November I probably clocked a good 5-10 hours on it. I mean, first of all, this whole "sex scene" that has all these conservatives so flustered is tamer than 90% of PG-13 sex scenes I've ever seen. It features, as the video game guy in this feature says, "the side of an alien boob." It is hardly smut, and on the whole, looks to me to be done in the same cinematic style that the rest of the game is shot in. In short, if this scares them so much, no freaking wonder GTA makes them shit themselves.
But the thing that drives me the craziest is how everyone who offers an opinion on video games that is not actually IN the industry, has absolutely no clue what they are talking about. I'm totally fine with people feeling that a game with alien side-boob is not for them. It's not for everyone. But for God's sake, don't pretend like you know anything about the context of that scene when you're saying things like, "in some parts of this, you’ll see full digital nudity. Imagine! And the ability for the players to engage in graphic sex and the person who’s playing the game gets to decide exactly what’s going to happen between the two people, if you know what I mean…"
STFU, news lady from Fox. I've watched this scene, seeing as it's blasted all over the YouTubes. There is no image of alien or human vajayjay. There are no dangly bits. That alone makes it not "full digital nudity." Secondly, I (and a lot of other people) would no doubt love to see the game where you decide "exactly what's going to happen," because in that case, we'd be living in a world where pigs fly. And I'd like to see that game not get an Adults Only rating. The fact is, that Mass Effect, even from the first chapter that I have played through features so damn much talking, that I've never seen a talkier game. You have to plan out in advance how to even GET to this sex scene, and frankly, I doubt if even the horniest gamers out there are so desperate to see about 10 seconds of fake side-boob that they have to play through 30+ hours of talky-as-hell video game just to see it. I mean, in an age where porn is available for free whenever you want it on the interwebs, that's laughable. This is not a hundred years ago when petticoats got men aroused. It takes more than side-boob.
As an aside, when I was playing this game, I once went about 2-3 hours where I did not fight a single thing. Brennon, at the time, remarked that the game looked horrendously boring because all I was doing was reading shit. I mean, I can't even count the number of times I've read asinine stuff like "gamers don't read" or "gamers just like to shoot things." I think a game with a complex story and an AI capable of modeling a realistic relationship is--and I know this sounds crazy!--probably better for a person to experience than say...a marathon of Dancing with the Stars.
I also hate how all these people keep acting as though this game is designed to be in the hands of like, 12-year old children. It's rated M for a reason. Even this panel on Fox just sits there and says how it makes the job of parents harder to have to watch what their kids are doing. I mean, fracking imagine that. Actually taking a role in your child's development and helping to guide what they can and cannot play. One woman says that if an adult male has this game, his child will play it when he's not home. Well, either lock it up (gee, that was easy) or use the parental controls that are ON THE XBOX360. Freaking educate yourself and you won't have to worry about 11 year old Johnny somehow figuring out how to seduce a woman and sit through 30 hours of game with the possibility of not pissing her off so that she won't have sex with his character.
People's laziness just never ceases to astound me. Parents seem to think that before this age of technology, parenting was some sort of simple cakewalk where they were all perfect little angels.
And I know that Fox is of course going to blow this all out of proportion, but the fact is, stories about Mass Effect have been popping up all over the internet. This is bothersome to me, because as a gamer, these negative stereotypes are utterly ridiculous. The majority of gamers are not, in fact, 12-15. I mean, I will never understand why people insist on thinking that people who play videogames are inherently anti-social. It is no more anti-social than sitting around watching TV, movies, playing solitaire, reading.. All of these are activities typically done alone, or at the very least, don't promote conversation. So why is it that playing games, which is more interactive than any of these things, is seen as the root of all evil. I'm so tired of being seen as just another member of a group supposedly made up of pubescent boys and obese 30 year olds who live with their mothers and never see the light of day. And the fact is, that the media's portrayal of the gaming community in that way simply reinforces the stereotype for a bajillion other people--ones who actually KNOW people who play video games--who buy right into it.
In the end, I just wish people might for once a) look into what they offer an opinion on and b) realize that the gaming community is just that, a community, and not a collection of ultraviolent, emotionally-stunted "losers."
And frack you, Fox.
Now, I haven't had the opportunity yet to play through the entirety of Mass Effect yet, though back in November I probably clocked a good 5-10 hours on it. I mean, first of all, this whole "sex scene" that has all these conservatives so flustered is tamer than 90% of PG-13 sex scenes I've ever seen. It features, as the video game guy in this feature says, "the side of an alien boob." It is hardly smut, and on the whole, looks to me to be done in the same cinematic style that the rest of the game is shot in. In short, if this scares them so much, no freaking wonder GTA makes them shit themselves.
But the thing that drives me the craziest is how everyone who offers an opinion on video games that is not actually IN the industry, has absolutely no clue what they are talking about. I'm totally fine with people feeling that a game with alien side-boob is not for them. It's not for everyone. But for God's sake, don't pretend like you know anything about the context of that scene when you're saying things like, "in some parts of this, you’ll see full digital nudity. Imagine! And the ability for the players to engage in graphic sex and the person who’s playing the game gets to decide exactly what’s going to happen between the two people, if you know what I mean…"
STFU, news lady from Fox. I've watched this scene, seeing as it's blasted all over the YouTubes. There is no image of alien or human vajayjay. There are no dangly bits. That alone makes it not "full digital nudity." Secondly, I (and a lot of other people) would no doubt love to see the game where you decide "exactly what's going to happen," because in that case, we'd be living in a world where pigs fly. And I'd like to see that game not get an Adults Only rating. The fact is, that Mass Effect, even from the first chapter that I have played through features so damn much talking, that I've never seen a talkier game. You have to plan out in advance how to even GET to this sex scene, and frankly, I doubt if even the horniest gamers out there are so desperate to see about 10 seconds of fake side-boob that they have to play through 30+ hours of talky-as-hell video game just to see it. I mean, in an age where porn is available for free whenever you want it on the interwebs, that's laughable. This is not a hundred years ago when petticoats got men aroused. It takes more than side-boob.
As an aside, when I was playing this game, I once went about 2-3 hours where I did not fight a single thing. Brennon, at the time, remarked that the game looked horrendously boring because all I was doing was reading shit. I mean, I can't even count the number of times I've read asinine stuff like "gamers don't read" or "gamers just like to shoot things." I think a game with a complex story and an AI capable of modeling a realistic relationship is--and I know this sounds crazy!--probably better for a person to experience than say...a marathon of Dancing with the Stars.
I also hate how all these people keep acting as though this game is designed to be in the hands of like, 12-year old children. It's rated M for a reason. Even this panel on Fox just sits there and says how it makes the job of parents harder to have to watch what their kids are doing. I mean, fracking imagine that. Actually taking a role in your child's development and helping to guide what they can and cannot play. One woman says that if an adult male has this game, his child will play it when he's not home. Well, either lock it up (gee, that was easy) or use the parental controls that are ON THE XBOX360. Freaking educate yourself and you won't have to worry about 11 year old Johnny somehow figuring out how to seduce a woman and sit through 30 hours of game with the possibility of not pissing her off so that she won't have sex with his character.
People's laziness just never ceases to astound me. Parents seem to think that before this age of technology, parenting was some sort of simple cakewalk where they were all perfect little angels.
And I know that Fox is of course going to blow this all out of proportion, but the fact is, stories about Mass Effect have been popping up all over the internet. This is bothersome to me, because as a gamer, these negative stereotypes are utterly ridiculous. The majority of gamers are not, in fact, 12-15. I mean, I will never understand why people insist on thinking that people who play videogames are inherently anti-social. It is no more anti-social than sitting around watching TV, movies, playing solitaire, reading.. All of these are activities typically done alone, or at the very least, don't promote conversation. So why is it that playing games, which is more interactive than any of these things, is seen as the root of all evil. I'm so tired of being seen as just another member of a group supposedly made up of pubescent boys and obese 30 year olds who live with their mothers and never see the light of day. And the fact is, that the media's portrayal of the gaming community in that way simply reinforces the stereotype for a bajillion other people--ones who actually KNOW people who play video games--who buy right into it.
In the end, I just wish people might for once a) look into what they offer an opinion on and b) realize that the gaming community is just that, a community, and not a collection of ultraviolent, emotionally-stunted "losers."
And frack you, Fox.
Return to Oz
Ah, my blog. Well, it's certainly been a while. I've been meaning to start writing in this again since I failed miserably at NaNoWriMo. This is now year 4 or so that I have failed, but I still don't want to give up. I mean I was REALLY close this time. There were extenuating circumstances...and those circumstances were not FFXII. My intention is to start writing more often, both in this blog about whatever comes to mind and in a more creative setting, to help myself write faster and thus be marginally more efficient during November. Of course, if I'm still in this job, which I intend to be, November will be a horrible month again...but life will always get in the way if I let it, so I won't. Bitch.
So, update on my life. Obviously, due to my extenuating circumstances, I am single once more. This is me waving my white flag and giving up for a while. I really want 2008 to be the year of me. I want to get re-acquainted with what I like about myself and whatever it is that other people like about me. Sometimes, it's difficult to see the good in myself. It's far easier to slip into a self-fulfilling prophecy about my being boring, but I know I used to think I was a fun, interesting guy. Sometime back in college probably, but I know I felt that way once. It would be a nice change to get back to feeling like that.
Hmm, what else... Been getting into watching politics even more than I used to, so yay for that. I <3 Hillary.
On an unrelated note, while it is obviously sad that Heath Ledger died, let's try to remember that celebrities are no more valuable human beings than anyone else who dies every day. Let this spur people to vote to get us out of Iraq or something.
Also, go see Persepolis, cause it's amazing. Um, pretty much out of stuff to say right now, but lovely to be back and I'll be sure to post something soon about Mass Effect or something. Digital orgy. Plz.
So, update on my life. Obviously, due to my extenuating circumstances, I am single once more. This is me waving my white flag and giving up for a while. I really want 2008 to be the year of me. I want to get re-acquainted with what I like about myself and whatever it is that other people like about me. Sometimes, it's difficult to see the good in myself. It's far easier to slip into a self-fulfilling prophecy about my being boring, but I know I used to think I was a fun, interesting guy. Sometime back in college probably, but I know I felt that way once. It would be a nice change to get back to feeling like that.
Hmm, what else... Been getting into watching politics even more than I used to, so yay for that. I <3 Hillary.
On an unrelated note, while it is obviously sad that Heath Ledger died, let's try to remember that celebrities are no more valuable human beings than anyone else who dies every day. Let this spur people to vote to get us out of Iraq or something.
Also, go see Persepolis, cause it's amazing. Um, pretty much out of stuff to say right now, but lovely to be back and I'll be sure to post something soon about Mass Effect or something. Digital orgy. Plz.
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