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posted by admin on Feb 27

Long, long ago, we’re talking middle school here, I was renowned for my ability to quote the final panel of any Garfield strip upon seeing the first two panels. (Maybe, renowned isn’t the right word but I’m going somewhere.) Primarily, all the comic strips I read nowadays are webcomics but I still hold a special place in my heart for old classics like Garfield even if the strip really hasn’t been good for over a decade.

But this! Brilliance! Simply a genius idea. Several strips really made me stop and reflect on my own life and certainly many expose something universal about the human condition.

Also, reminds me I need to find a subscription service to deliver quality newspaper comics to my Inbox. A man cannot survive on Penny Arcade and PBF alone!

I crave sustenance!

posted by admin on Feb 21

Currently, I am working with a small team on a documentary for the American University Health and Wellness Center. We’ve been given the unenviable task of tackling the underage drinking problem and, most notably, the weekly stomach pumpings of the student body. Fortunately, our task is education not prevention. After a few pre-interviews even this task is laughably Sisyphean to anyone with a passing familarity with heavy drinking (and I would say I have more then a passing familarity).

The problem results from a refusal to rethink what drinking education means. Drinking, ironically, is like driving: until you do it, you don’t know how to do it. No amount of education can create that lovely feeling of waking up so hungover you can barely move. Knowing that those four shots of tequila are a bad idea is different from feeling yourself go from tipsy to puking in thirty minutes.

Health and enforcement organizations have taken the first step to recovery; they’ve admitted failure. Thus far the primary means of tackling the problem have been increased penalities and regulations and health education.

Let’s tackle the first one. Increasing the penalty for underage drinking would work. Unfortunately, the degree of increase would need to be so severe as to either intensify the true problem or eventually be repealed for not matching the crime. A moderate increase would result in fewer emergency calls made for fear of the reprisals. A sever increase would require huge financial expenditures to enforce and draw manpower from already hurting enforcement agencies. Even more laughable is regulation. As any economist will tell you, regulating an industry with a thriving black market accomplishes nothing. If a 16-year old can gain access to a gun they sure as hell can get a case of beer.

I touched on education above.

Let’s review.
The problem: Students, particularly underage students, require immediate medical attention after drinking and are often in mortal danger.

Current (failing) solutions: Punishment and education aka scare tactics.

These solutions don’t directly address the problem. Underage students are drinking dangerous amounts,much more so than their older counterparts. What changes between freshman year and turning 21 that could account for this?

1. Maturity
2. Easier access
3. These students have now been drinking for several years

I’d guess a factor of all three but particularly the last one. Experience in anything simply makes you better able to handle those situations. Students are learning how to drink at frat parties or with other inexperienced people. Maybe this is the true problem? Maybe someone else should be teaching young adults how to drink?

posted by admin on Feb 20

I love media.

I don’t know mean the media but rather media in it’s proper sense as a plural for medium. Looking around my room I am literally surrounded by means of media consumption. Example, I am literally three feet away from TWO TV’s, that’s a degree of opulence I never thought possible.

I started reflecting on this when my iPod’s random shuffle selected nostalgia* a couple days ago. Springsteen’s solid, a little before my time, but being my Dad’s favorite artist he holds a special place for me. The song simply made me smile and took all the stress out of my life for a couple hours. Times like this I truly understand the futility of ‘Top 10′ lists and evaluating any art beyond a personal basis. Some things are simply better pieces of art than others but the beauty of any media is connecting to it.

I can’t picture my life without these moments. With the internet and crazy amount of media out there today I think we’ve lost the mass consciousness that once existed in this country but this has made media all the more personal. When something of quality does sneak into the radar of the masses it’s all the more impressive. Now so much of my favorite media feels like discovering something new to share with friends. That’s a helluva feeling.

I finally saw Ratatouille two days ago. What a phenomenal film. Its simple message, ‘Anyone Can Cook’, touches this beautiful flourishing in the digital age, the greatest of works, the works that touch your soul, come from the unlikeliest of places. Brad Bird is a genius.

I’ll destroy the whole point of this post: Pixar got screwed not getting a Best Pic nod at the Oscars.

*It must have been awesome to direct music videos in the 80’s.

posted by admin on Feb 13

A couple days ago Devil May Cry 4 arrived from Gamefly and I finally started playing tonight. I skipped 2 and 3 so apparently Dante is gone and there is a new hero 2000 years later except 2000 years later is the past, whatever. This is exactly the game I needed. 100% action, hardcore gameplay and kickass difficulty! But watching the unnecasary cut scenes reminded me what drives me crazy about most games these days and got me thinking. What is the standard for video game writing?

DMC4 is published by Capcom so naturally the dialogue is cheesy and hilarious and the plot nonsensical. That’s fine it’s the video game equivalent of Shoot ‘Em Up. My problem is all the cut scenes that take you out of the action. One of my favorite aspects of DMC is that all the badass action that occurs during cut scenes is possible (mostly) in game. Typically games show incredible action and then you’re stuck fighting within the limitations of the engine. My question is why does DMC need cut scenes? The point of a video game is interactivity so a cut scene should be viewed as a negative. There’s a whole other art form dedicated to showing visual stories.

In screenwriting one of the first lessons you learn is to write visually. Anything in a script that can’t be expressed visually on the screen is worthless. If a character feels doubt they must express it through dialogue or a visual metaphor is needed. Shouldn’t video games be written interactively? Anything that can’t be expressed through interaction is meaningless. Taking twenty minutes to wrest control away from the player to explain the story is ridiculous. Maybe this is why MMRPG’s are so popular. No cut scenes to ruin the immersion.

A possible exception to all this is Metal Gear Solid where taking control from the player is part of the theme of technology dominating society. I’m not convinced as to how well it works but at least the cut scenes are motivated.

posted by admin on Feb 13

What the fuck Boomerang Network? All I want is a goddamn show on at lunch time that doesn’t suck balls. Instead I get this:

What’s that? Get a fucking job and don’t be home at lunch time? Fuck you! Put on some Yogi-fucking-Bear!

I will admit that is one bad-ass theme song, though. Bet there’s a punk cover somewhere.

Also, fuck!

posted by admin on Feb 10

I’m a few hours into Mass Effect and arriving on my third planet. Props to the game for out of nowhere going Twisted Metal with vehicle combat. Reading through reviews I’m surprised by how many complaints I see about the combat system and how much praise the game’s dialogue receives for immersion. I feel the opposite. The combat system is what it is. You really have little control over your squad mates and have little reason to concern yourselves with them. It’s an action-RPG not a squad-based shooter so this makes sense. Your abilities upgrade nicely as you gain levels things like damage and accuracy increase as well as the weapons open to you. (Note, this is a gross simplification as much depends on what character class you choose.) It’s fairly standard RPG combat with a few original touches. If anyone expects more they are refusing to engage the game on it’s own terms.

The dialogue however drives me insane.

Throughout the game you navigate a significant amount of branching dialogue and occassionally this impacts how others react to your character. Honestly though, it’s largely unimportant. Half the time you have a list of information based items to ask about which essentially equates to “do you want to know what the hell is going on.” The other dialogue tree’s are infuriating because they don’t make any sense. When you randomly change topics the AI doesn’t even flinch. Within ten seconds it’s obvious you are hearing pre-programmed responses.

My other problem with the dialogue trees are your response options. They don’t match what your character will say. You’ll try to choose the response that seems to indicate understanding only to come off as a pompous ass or you want to express frustration and you pistol whip the NPC. All of these things serve to remove you from the experience because your character refuses to behave as you intend, and at the end of the day that is the point of the game design.

This is not to say the game is not very, very good. The story itself is top notch science fiction. It reminds me of Halo but, well, good. The attention to character design, even amongst minor characters, blows other games away. That guy drinking in the bar, minding his own business has a story, prejudices and his own thoughts and motivations. Just go ask him. This is incredibly immersive and perhaps is fooling some people into praising the dialogue as immersive.

I do worry that like KOTOR I’ll tire of the unfocused narrative and abandon the game. We’ll see.

I finished The Somnambulist and the narrator’s identity was indeed a shock. The ending felt anti-climatic but does keep a realistic feel consistent with the novel. My main complaint is how the structure robs the reader of any true discovery and merely rattles off the facts rushing to the conclusion. Still, the characters are largely original and mysterious carrying the novel past some of it’s flaws. Highly enjoyable and worth the read.

posted by admin on Feb 9

A little more than halfway through The Somnambulist and I am very intrigued by Mr. Moon and the bizarre people that populate his universe, the narrator especially. He most certainly has to be a character in the novel (and I have my ideas as to which character) and I can’t wait to find out his identity. Everything in the book hinges on the point of view and while I suspect it will be the obvious choice I hold out hope there is something more because the prose is quite inventive and well thought out.

The novel is rife to be made into a movie. Certainly, a few things, like appearances, would need to change but I think it would work better as visual art because the world and characters are so bizarre. I would love to see Tim Burton get a hold of it.

Thus far I strongly recommend it to anyway who enjoys detective stories with a bit of the occult.

posted by admin on Feb 5

“If anybody wants to believe they’re the descendants of a primate, they’re welcome to do it.” –Mike Huckabee

If you say that you should be automatically disqualified from any public office. But Huckabee just won West Virginia.

What the fuck is wrong with you WVa?