The Mosque At Ground Zero
Posted by Zel-kun on August 23rd, 2010 filed in Random Bits2 Comments »
It seems that every time I log into Facebook, someone is going on about building a Mosque at Ground Zero. I am honestly ashamed that such a thing is even an issue, that my fellow Americans would whine and pule about it. Usually, I can wave such things off as just them being conservative, but this… I’m not sure what they’re really trying to say by so venomously opposing the building of this Mosque. I would like to address a few things here, on this humble blog, that should hopefully bring to light just how wrong it is to oppose this for the wrong reasons.
1. The Mosque is not being built on top of Ground Zero, it’s being built a few blocks away. It’s not like they’re building it instead of a memorial to the fallen.
2. Isn’t freedom of religion one of the very things that led us to settling this land? Surely that freedom extends to all religions, not just Christians?
3. We aren’t at war with Islam. The people who lead these attacks happen to by Muslin, but are fundamental extremists. If a religion can be deemed as evil based on the actions of some extremists, then perhaps I should remind people of groups like the KKK.
4. Hundreds of innocent Muslims died in the 9/11 attacks. They were hard-working people just doing their jobs in their offices, when those crazy people came and killed everyone. If the families of these people want a nearby place to mourn their loss, and pray to their god for guidance, why should we stop that?
There really is enough hatred in the world, we really don’t need to create more. I love this country, and am very proud to be an American. But right now, I’m very disappointed by these others who say they love this country, then spit on one of the tenets that make it great.
Zel-kun out.
The Smartly Chicago
Posted by Zel-kun on August 19th, 2010 filed in Random Bits2 Comments »
I’ve been accepted into an online collective of writers known as ‘The Smartly.’ I’m pretty stoked about it, and also rather nervous. It’ll be the first time I’ll have someone evaluating and publishing my articles, so I’m sure it’ll be a learning experience.
I’d like to take this time to thank Miss BurgandySkies over at Pererro for both encouraging me to apply, and being there to bounce ideas off. She also contributes to their Orange County page.
And today my first article there has been published, ‘What Color Is Your Collar?’ You may find it on the Chicago site (of course).
Zel-kun out.
Divinity II: Ego Draconis
Posted by Zel-kun on August 2nd, 2010 filed in GamingComment now »
I picked this up at Gamestop the other day. It was $20 and an RPG, and I am always starved for RPG’s. I was excited to learn that it was a sequel to Divine Divinity, a game I enjoyed playing on the PC a number of years ago. I read the back of the box, advertising the fact that I can acquire a base of operations (always love games that give me a home to do stuff in) and that I can turn into a dragon, and fly around and kill stuff. Despite being on the shelf for $20, I thought I might have a pretty decent game on my hands.
I’ve been riding a roller coaster of love and hate for this game since I started playing it. It begins with a tutorial, as many games do, and eases you into things. It seems to take a little too long to get out and start killing things, so by the time you get out to the field, you’ll run out and get yourself killed. And that’s when you find out the first challenge of this game. Even on easy mode, this game is brutal and unforgiving. It demands you use strategy, because enemies will surround and slaughter you. And if you die, it’s game over, load up your last save.
Oh, you forgot to save? I’m sorry.
I’ve taken to saving after every encounter, because it’s too easy to die in the next one. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find some good loot, and the battles will go more smoothly for the rest of the stage. But the next stage you start the grind all over again. I’ve taken it in stride and have survived for the most part, but my main complaint is that I still cannot do what I was promised on the back of the box. I’m level 18, have completed dozens of quests, and I am not a dragon, nor do I have a base. I have all these items my craftsmen would take off my hands if the game would give me my base already, but as it is I stand encumbered and unable to manage my inventory because I’ll need everything.
I’m close to doing the whole dragon and base thing, and the game knows it. The difficulty continues to ramp up, I must have reloaded the game a few dozen times last night. I was confronted with a boss that could kill me in four hits. Being that potions have cooldowns, I can’t drink them fast enough to survive. I had to resort to a hit and run strategy in tight quarters (the exits to the hallway you’re in seal shut for the battle). It took all of my potions, but I finally took him down.
Now I just have to figure out how to get some more poitions…
So, if you really love hack and slash games, and don’t suck at them like I do, then I would recommend picking it up. If you’re more of a casual player that doesn’t like dying every five minutes, maybe pass this one up. It can sense new blood and will kill you.
Zel-kun out.
Flooding
Posted by Zel-kun on July 26th, 2010 filed in Random Bits1 Comment »
I woke up Saturday morning to the occasional rumble of thunder and the tapping of rain on my windows. The rain didn’t seem to bad, so I really wasn’t worried. The last time the town flooded a few weeks back, my basement was dry, so I felt fairly comfortable. I spent the early morning (I haven’t slept past 7:00am in ages) on the computer, and around 8:00, Zai wanted to get some breakfast.
I grudgingly got dressed and started the car. As I turned the corner, I saw some mild flooding on the road. It wasn’t anything too major, just a couple inches, so we continued onward. We approached the restaraunt and saw a lot more severe flooding. The parking lot was far enough underwater that I wasn’t about to try driving through it. The intersection had a decent amount of flooding, so I decided I’d take a left, and work my way back home.
I did not understand how big of a mistake this was. Another deep river crossed the road, forcing me onto a back road. At this point, I knew I was in for trouble when I passed a storm drain that was energetically spewing water. I followed the road and stopped, completely in awe. The road literally vanished underwater, going down until the cars on the street almost disappeared under the water.
At this point, I tried to go back the way I came and found that intersection so completely flooded that the police had it blocked off, and the news vans were crowded around it. We sloshed through the shallowest rivers we could find, taking us a mile or two out of our way, passing an exit to the expressway with one lone car sunk into the water. The water was up to its windows, but thankfully no one was inside. We finally made it home, and I decided it would be a good idea to check the basement. Sure enough, water had crept out of the storm system and into my home. It wasn’t horrible, only a couple of inches. Given that the only thing on the floor was plastic, and the walls we built were made of greenboard for THIS EXACT POSSIBILITY, damage was very minimal. Within a couple of hours, the sun came out, and the water went back down the drain.
That evening, we noticed we had no hot water. I read the instructions for re-lighting the pilot light, but they didn’t seem to work. I called a good friend and he said the ignition system probably went out, and he made time in his schedule to come out from Indiana to take a look. He got there, took a quick look, and successfully lit the pilot. Apparently, even though it doesn’t say to, you want to hold the gas feed button down for fifteen seconds before hitting the ignition button. This allows gas to both clear out the lines and get to the lighting mechanism. I just held down the button and started clicking away, and after seven or eight clicks I would shut it off for fear of blowing myself up. I guess if I was more reckless it would have lit eventually.
In any case, I’m glad I don’t need a new water heater. Now I just need to figure out how to stop that drain once and for all. I hear that installing a standpipe might resolve the issue. Any plumbers out there have any thoughts?
Zel-kun out.
Into the Jungle
Posted by Zel-kun on July 23rd, 2010 filed in Random Bits3 Comments »
When I bought my home, the yard was a mess. There was a dilapidated pool, the various garden beds we choked with weeds, and vines and ivy were covering everything. I spent a few weekends liberating the house, chopping mercilessly at the thick entanglements that entrenched themselves behind my house. I unearthed a water spigot I didn’t know existed, and I had to open up my air conditioning unit to clear the choking vines from both the fan and the electrical work. I was especially surprised when I found the electric meter behind a solid two feet of vines.
Finally, I had won the battle, and I could see the house. The weather was getting cooler, and the plants had stopped growing, so I rested. As Spring finally thawed the snow, I dove headfirst into basement maintenance. The drain was backing up and flooding, and as we were tearing down all the drywall, we decided to finally finish the basement.
Seeing my distraction, the plants formed a plan of attack. To gauge my potential backlash, the grass began to grow, and grow. After about a month of this, my yard began to look like a wild prairie. I knew that it had gone too far when I chased a herd of buffalo out of there. I revved up the lawnmower, and began the three-day long task of mowing. The end count was one giant landscape refuse container and thirteen jumbo lawn bags full of clippings.
Either Zai or myself continued to mow every week, and we enjoyed an uneasy truce with the plants. Unfortunately, on the fifth of July, the day of our cookout, they chose to attack. I walked outside to discover the ivy had almost completely covered the back of my home again. It was a hundred degrees out, but the growth was spreading to the driveway, right where the grill was going to go. They may have preyed upon my weakness (intense heat), but they had gone TOO FAR.
I ran into the garage and pulled out the giant clippers and the branch cutter, and I went to battle. I clipped and cut, I pulled out roots, and I slowly liberated my house from the verdant forces. I was short of breath and covered in sweat, but the battle had been won for now. The plants were formidable opponents, and they have seemingly infinite reinforcements.
I had been sick, then very busy these last two weeks, and the plants knew that. I came home last night to find that the plants had mounted a full on assault. Zai had mowed the lawn, but there was much less lawn. Saplings, GIANT weeds, and random plants had grown everywhere. Ivy had once again attacked the house, and the garden beds have stepped out far beyond their boundries. It was pandemonium, a massacre of the civilization I had worked so hard to maintain. I ran to the garage, grabbed my machete, and attacked them in a warrior’s rage.
I was angry, I had gone in without a strategy, and was massively outnumbered. I hacked and I slashed, taking down many plants with me, but in the end I was forced to retreat, bruised and humiliated. The plants had won the battle, and I can feel them gathering their strength for the final assault this weekend. They want my home.
I will not let them have it.
I will defend my home from the invaders, even if it costs me my life. I go into enemy territory tomorrow, wish me luck.
Zel-kun out.
Necessity
Posted by Zel-kun on July 19th, 2010 filed in Random Bits5 Comments »
Yesterday, I took a drive over to Sam’s Club to investigate the possibility that my television is still under warranty. I’ve been without a high-definition TV for about a month now, and I needed to get this straightened out. I had an old TV a friend gave me, a 35-inch digital flatscreen (not an LCD or plasma, so it still had all the bulk of a tube), which served it’s purpose well enough. The problem was that it had no ports for my satellite box, and playing newer games is an impossibility (Most games on the 360 expect you to have HD, making fonts and maps nearly impossible to read at any size). Sam’s Club said they’d look into it for me, and also gave me a number to call to check it out myself. But, I’m impatient, so I took the opportunity to get a new 47″ Vizio. I figure that if I can get my old TV fixed under warranty, I can sell it or give it away to a friend or family member.
We brought it home and set it up. It’s a great picture, and the larger size means I can more easily read the text on my RPG’s from my recliner on the other side of the room, which was a problem I had with my old 42″. I was pretty happy with my purchase, which ended up costing less than the old TV a couple years back. I was rather upset, however, when I read a comment on Facebook in response to Zai’s status about the new TV.
Zai: Got a new TV! It’s even bigger than the last one!
Her sister then chose to respond with some social commentary.
Sis: Nobody should need a TV that big. There are people in third-world countries that can’t afford TV’s at all. We still have that old tube in our living room and I am happy with that, it gets the job done. With all the extra money your guys spent on a bigger TV, you could have got a smaller one and paid some other bills.
Now, while I was upset that she disapproved of my purchase, she does not tread upon unfamiliar ground. There’s a very true fact of life, and that is it could always be better, and it could always be worse. I do very well in life. I’m not a millionaire, and I can’t afford to travel the world, but I also never worry about my next meal, nor the roof over my head. I am, in fact, a middle-class citizen.
I remember learning in philosophy of the rich man’s dillemma (I can’t remember the exact title of the concept). The basic premise is that no matter how much a rich man can give to charity, the fact remains he could always give more, until he himself is poor. Should he give until he is poor? Is that when he can no longer feel guilty about being rich? As long as the rich man remains rich, society expects him to give of himself, and expects him to feel guilty. When is enough enough?
Philosophy aside, let me share my belief: You should never feel guilty about what you’ve earned in life. I didn’t steal that TV, nor do I make a living robbing from third-world countries to make sure they don’t have TV’s. I refuse to feel guilty because I had the fortune to be born in a country where I had the means to succeed. Does it suck for them? Yes, it absolutely does. Do I have sympathy for them? Yes, I try to put some money in those donation boxes every time I see one.
But, as for the necessity of such a purchase… what IS really necessary? I guess a large TV isn’t… or for that matter, any TV. Without a TV, I surely don’t need cable. The free phone book delivered to my door, and a handy map could find me all the information and directions I really need, so I guess I can disconnect the internet. I could easily keep my financial and writing notes neatly organized in my file drawer, so I can get rid of my computer. While it would be a bit more work, think of the money saved by getting rid of the washer and dryer.
To go even further, if we keep all the windows open, dress coolly, and just have a couple fans, we could easily survive the summer, though not always at our most comfortable. Work is only fifteen miles away, if I bought a decent bicycle I could feasibly get to work in about two hours (walking is an estimated 5.5 hours each way, which when combined with six hours of sleep, does not leave enough hours in the day to work), so I can get rid of the car.
To finish things up, I would say that furniture such as tables, chairs, and beds are completely unecessary. Might be a little uncomfortable, but we’d adjust. I’m sure that after a few weeks, sitting in chairs would feel awkward.
So, until you’ve done all of these things and given every dime you saved in doing so to charity, there’s no reason to get judgemental. If you’ve earned things in life, enjoy them. Yes, making charitable donations is fantastic, I encourage it. But when you get home and kick back in your recliner, don’t feel guilty because there are people out there who can’t enjoy a high definition TV. Just enjoy it.
Zel-kun out.
Nature’s Wrath
Posted by Zel-kun on July 6th, 2010 filed in Random Bits1 Comment »
If you’ve spent time in the Midwest, you might know that barring some bad snowstorms, our weather is typically mild. Sure, we have a thunderstorm every once in awhile, but it generally passes quickly. We got a huge amount of rain in a short amount of time a couple years ago (I think the rampant flooding reached national news…), but even that was out of the ordinary. This June, however, the skies have opened up, and they have rarely let up.
As regular readers know, I had a battle with the floor drain in my basement. It backed up and let over a foot of water into the house. After a month-long battle, I finally fixed it. The issue resurfaced in April, but luckily Zai was observant and caught it overflowing before any real damage was done. She hooked up the pump and drained what she could, stabilizing the flooding to a moderate puddle around the drain. I finally caved and called a plumber, who routed out quite a lot of foreign debris from the drain. I won’t go into specifics, but the pile came up past my knees, and consisted of supposedly flushable items.
May was the first peaceful month of home ownership I had since mid-march when the whole issue began. I had finished paying the plumber and work could once again begin downstairs. We didn’t do much work, Paul was working a crazy schedule, and I’m way too incompetent to try working by myself. With my luck, I’d end up with the bar on the ceiling.
A few weeks ago, during some particularly heavy rain, I noticed some water in the basement. The water headed to the drain, instead of coming up it, which was a blessing. But mysterious puddles were of concern nonetheless. I noticed the water was coming from two walls. On one I could see a visible crack, and the other was behind the drywall. I called up a local company and scheduled an appointment immediately. They came out, found three cracks, (only two actually leaking) and told me it’d be a thousand dollars to fix the problem. Considering I’ve heard of people paying a lot more, I was actually relieved. I’m scheduled for the fix in mid-July… apparently I’m not the only one with foundation problems in the area.
Since then, it has rained, to some extent, nearly every day. And about once a week we’ve gotten a rather severe storm. And I’m not entirely sure, but I’m pretty sure these storms are after me.
The first big storm was two weeks ago, toppling trees and crashing cars. It started at about the time I left the office, continued during my two hour commute (usually half-hour), then stopped as I got home. Frustrating, but not particularly damaging.
The next one came the following week, again starting at about the time I left the office. This one didn’t affect my commute too much until I got within half-mile of my home, where the local police had closed the road. I then spent another hour trying to navigate the suburban labyrinth, complete with dead-ends, fallen trees, rivers almost too deep to drive across, and rivers way to deep to drive across. Several times I was certain the vehicle was going to stall and I was going to be screwed. But eventually, I defeated the storm and made my way home. Zai let me know she unlocked the door so I could just dash to the house. I made it to the front door and turned the handle… it was locked, and I was getting soaked. I pounded on the door, and she called out, “It’s not locked!”
I called back with the obvious, “Yes! Yes it is!”
A few moments later, she finally unlocked the door and let me in. While I was soaked, I was no worse for the wear.
The third decided it was done screwing around. It was Sunday morning when the skies darkened and thunder rumbled in the distance. I was inside and had nowhere to go, so I paid it no mind. A few minutes later, the room filled with light and the deafening sound of thunder. Lightning struck somewhere very close, enough to make every light in the room flicker for an instant. While lights seemed to recover fine from the power surge, more delicate electronic devices weren’t so lucky.
My television went dark and buzzed loudly for a moment, and then turned off. It has remained in this dormant state for over a week now. I now have a lovely over-sized paperweight that looks remarkable like a flat screen television. The surge continued on and fried the video card of my media PC, ensuring that even if my television worked, I could not get high-def videos playing on it. I went upstairs to look to see if there maybe was a fix for a blown-out television (doesn’t seem to be), and found my network to be inaccessible. The router took a hit as well. Luckily, power-cycling saved it, but the poor DSL modem could not withstand nature’s fury and was fried in the blast. I called up AT&T and sat on the line for tech support. They walked me through steps to power cycle and check the cabling, and even rebooting my machine twice. I didn’t actually perform any of these steps, because I had already done my troubleshooting, I could connect to the modem. In fact, for one or two seconds every five minutes or so, it would pick up the signal, just to drop it immediately afterward. So, I knew the modem was at fault. I don’t blame tech support for wanting me to do all those steps, after all, you need to verify things.
They told me a tech might be out Tuesday, so I resigned myself to have no television, X-box, or internet for the next couple days. I began to dread that I might actually have to have human interaction to replace my fallen electronic companions, when there was a knock at my door. There was a tech there at my house, not one hour since I made the call. He inspected the modem, found it to be bad, and replaced it. Twenty minutes later, the internet had returned.
It was the longest hour and twenty minutes of my life. Please don’t leave me again, internet. I’ll be good, I promise.
Regarding the television, repair shops don’t really seem to exist anymore. A search produced no viable results, and the one lead I did get, Sears, would charge me $100 for the privilige of them telling me how much it would cost.
I’m sorry, Sears, but if companies like Permaseal can come to my leaky basement, inspect all the walls for cracks, then produce a service plan and estimate for free, you can at least look at a television.
Besides, word around is that it’s better to replace than repair. I guess that’s okay, at least it gives me an excuse to buy a larger television.
Zel-kun out.
Twilight
Posted by Zel-kun on July 1st, 2010 filed in Random Bits7 Comments »
Okay… so Twilight, yeah…
First off, I have to say that I am surprised by the whole thing. EVERYONE feels very strongly about it. I have friends that absolutely love it, and those that completely despise it. The rift is huge, the debates I’ve seen rival that of the abortion, healthcare, and war controversies. I figured I could get to the root of the debate, the real question on everyone’s minds: Is Twilight good?
First up to the podium is my wife Zaida. To give a little background, she is an avid vampire enthusiast, with the entirety of Anne Rice’s catalogue under her belt. She’s also read quite a bit of fairy tale retellings and has watched pretty much every movie that has even mentioned ‘vampire.’ I will now let her speak:
“*ahem* Vampires were cool until Twilight made them pansies. A sparkly body is NOT ‘the body of a killer’ it is the body of a gay raver. Besides, what’s with the ‘I can read everyone’s thoughts but yours, I want you,’ is it because she doesn’t HAVE any thoughts?
“Its teenage high school drama fluff! I can understand how a 14 year old girl can like it. Bella is so vague and flat that any girl can imagine being her in the story which is the sort of thing I think a lot of teenage girls like in a story. And admittedly, its not HORRIBLE, for its target audience. But I have a lot of issues with the characters. I mean, the movie was SO boring until the bad vampires showed up near the end. I’m like FINALLY! some action! The story needs more of that. And why the heck would an 80 year old vampire still be in HIGH SCHOOL? seriously. If I was granted immortality…hmm…I wanna re-live the worst years of my life. sure, why not? Armand was 16 when he was made a vampire. You’d never see Armand in high school. But he couldn’t attend school during normal hours anyway. He’d burn in the sun!
“And the characters? Is anybody on the planet really like that?
“Bella- She brings nothing to the table from what I can tell anyway. She’s pretty, but she’s useless. She can’t fight, can’t defend herself, and I have only seen the first movie, but I don’t get it. She’s like Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi. Everybody likes her and I don’t know WHY! She’s annoying, useless, always gets herself in dangerous situations and always needs to be rescued! The only thing this girl has going for her is that she’s cute. If she was like the daughter of some clan of like ancient vampire hunters, then maybe I could see a romance developing between the characters as interesting. At least then she can hold her own and kick some ass, But she’s not, she’s a weakling.
“Edward- Okay, my first and biggest complaint here is the high school thing. I did not read the book, so I can’t imagine any logical reason they would be there. If there is one, enlighten me. So he doesn’t “Get” Bella and gradually starts to develop feelings for her. Now the book may have covered this in detail, but the movie just kind went right into it. So you’re 80+ and she’s like 17 and you have feelings and feel protective of her WHY? Your decades older and wiser than her, she is like an infant compared to you and I’m sure the simple interest of human beauty passes after the first 5 decades or so.
“And he watches her sleep? Uh…a REAL girl would think that’s creepy! Restraining order! So are we sending a hidden message to young girls saying its sweet to have a boyfriend that’s a pervy stalker?
“The only character I am actually okay with is Jacob. From what I can tell, he and Bella were kids together, so he knows her well and I can see him develop feelings for her. I actually will sit through the second movie when it arrives from my Netflix DVD queue. Spoony did a review (he does bad movie reviews so we don’t have to see them) and he said, WATCH the movie. Its so bad you have to see it for yourself to fully get the level of awful that it is. And so I shall!
“I probably will pick up the books eventually anyway. It would be unfair of me to continually bash Twilight as a bad movie if the books truly have more substance. Its how I usually feel about Harry Potter and the HP movies. The books were MUCH better, as is almost always the case with movies based on books.
“And yeah, it is a new way of looking at the vampire mythology and it is entertainment. Its just the way its all put together that makes me think no one but a young teenage girl can enjoy it.
“Maybe my opinion is biased because as a teen, I would see a lot of girls in obsessive, thus unhealthy relationships which were stupid, and I saw it as stupid, and I didn’t want to be like them. And a lot of people were like, “You don’t have a boyfriend, what is WRONG with you?” and tried to make me feel alienated and strange for NOT having a man in my life, and I think it was then and there that I decided I don’t NEED a man in my life to be happy. It was bullshit that people tried to make me feel that way, and as such, decided not to really date until I was older, and it is a decision I’m glad I made, but that is on a personal level. Young girls need to be taught about what is healthy and unhealthy in a relationship to avoid a lot of those stupid issues. Bella is NOT a good role model for that. Especially since most girls (or at least I hope) know how to put their foot down and end the creepy stalker crap.
“And in closing, aside from the fact that High School was a hellish experience I’m glad is behind me, sure, I can see Edward going through 4 years of high school a few times, maybe 4 or 5 tops…movie made it seems like he’s been stuck in high school since the day he became a vampire. You want a human experience? Try working! Or even better, COLLEGE! with that kind of time, you can get a masters degree in EVERYTHING!
“Thank you for your time.”
Thank you Zaida, I can see you’re quite passionate about it. But what about someone who’s read the books? Our next presenters are my sister-in-law Vicky and friend Michelle. They have both read the books and have opposing viewpoints. Vicky, you may begin.
“Thank you.
“I read the book and the whole thing was nothing but exposition. A good book needs more plot structure other than “I love you”, “I want to be with you forever” crap in the 489 pages. I can tell you the plot chart right now. Bella moves with her father, she hates life even though everyone likes her, meet edward, does research and comes up with he’s a vampire because he’s really strong. He finally admits he is a vampire, they play baseball (not until the very end), bad vampires come, they go after Bella, Edward saves her. Oh yeah and they go to prom. I didn’t need that many pages for that.
“Besides Bella is a bad role model for young girls. WHY DOES SHE NEED A MAN TO BE HAPPY? She’s so emo, and upset, she has all these classmates at school wanting to be her friend, she has a nice dad. but as long as Edward isn’t around she doesn’t care about anything else. when he leaves she’s all depressed and if it’s not Edward, its Jacob. In all honesty, if I moved away to a new place and everyone was all excited to meet me and want to be my friend I would be so excited and happy! and if I met a guy that would be great, but I wouldn’t let it consume my life. I’m still gonna do me. I’m still gonna focus on school, my own social and family life. when it intrudes that’s when it can become abusive. I’m not saying they have an abusive relationship but it does open that door.
Bella needs to focus on herself and learn to love herself more, with or without a man in her life. This is a lesson that girls need to know in life.”
Excellent. Michelle, your rebuttal?
“Vicky, the fact is that most girls are exactly Bella. We obsess, especially as teenagers, about meeting the perfect guy and let him be all consuming. Most of us that have had teen relationships can completely understand this. And the reason for him to keep going to high school is the fact that he didn’t want to become a vampire and he wants to have some kind of ‘human’ experiences. And I wish I could go back to high school.
“Also people are shallow. If they say they don’t care about looks its because its nice to think that they don’t. And most of us adults have realized that you don’t need a man to be happy…but most teens have not learned that.
“The book is definitely more descriptive on why Edward finds Bella so appealing. It is the ’scent’ of her blood. And the reason he can’t read her mind will come full circle when she actually becomes a vampire.
“Also if you were a teen and someone was trying to kill you, would you kick ass. I don’t know about you, but I would prolly hide in a corner and cry until death came and got me. I do have to agree that it aggravates me that Bella is off putting from anyone liking her. But I have seen this so many times in my own school, a new student arrives and all of a sudden they are like the popular kids little puppet. They flock to them for some reason. And then later on they may or may not discard them.
“And there was more plot–the whole story real comes full circle if you read all the books. The characters get developed more as they experience more in life. Which is so true of real life. We gain more experience and wisdom as we experience it. Most of us learn to love ourselves by being all consumed by someone and then getting left flat on our faces to pick up the pieces of our hearts by ourselves and move on. To learn that some men come and go.
“But this world thrives on ‘the happy ending’. With so much bad stuff going on, we need someone to have a happy ending. Even if its not us. We can live vicariously through our books.”
Thank you Michelle and Vicky.
My final speaker for the day is Ms. Julie Scott, of Pererro fame. I’ve asked her to speak here today because not only has she worked as a professional editor and married to an aspiring writer, she has also read both classical and contemporary novels, running the gambit between quirky and lofty. So, Julie, what is your take on Twilight?
“The books have literary merit on the level that they are engaging, well paced, and certainly communicate Meyers’ supernatural take on the 1800s romance novel. She steals directly from Jane Austen’s playbook (among others), and even calls them out at various times. Being a big fan of 1800s literature, I feel like I can see what she was trying to do it and appreciate the cheeky cleverness of it. It’s written for women who still harbor old fashioned ideals about finding their soul mate, marriage, enjoying boys fighting over you, and saving the day, not with your fists, but with your witty clever brain and feminine wiles.
“Seriously, anyone who says Bella is a weak girl in need of saving needs to read the books with an open mind again – she’s constantly figuring things out other characters have missed, and pretty much saves the day in 3 of the novels. Just because she does it with her BRAIN instead of with her cool punches and kicks, doesn’t make it any less so. Even in the first one she attempts to sacrifice herself to save her mom, so I don’t know where this whole “Bella is weak female protagonist” meme came from, but it’s kind of dumb.
“In terms of how good are they from a technical standpoint – The first book has some technical issues, and the second one has some serious pacing issues, but there is definitely a raw story that resonates on an emotional level, so if you can read it like your reading a novel a friend wrote and try to kind of turn off your inner editor, it flows okay. The third and fourth books she improved tremendously, so it’s well worth slogging through the second. So, I think in terms of “good” writing, you have to consider them separately. The first book is decently written, but it’s obvious Stephanie didn’t really know her characters well enough yet to flesh them out properly, and with the second book, while her voice and sentence structure improved, it’s also painfully obvious she was writing it because the publisher insisted on a second book with Bella in high school, not because she really believed in the story (she’s admitted to this in interviews). Basically, it feels like filler because it IS filler. However, you can tell that in the second half of the series, she really had a much clearer idea of who the characters were, and had improved her skills enough to get that across better – better dialogue, tighter exposition, and a stronger sense of voice. So, I think those two have much stronger literary merit than the first two.”
Thank you Julie.
So I guess what’s left is how I feel about it…
While I have heard quite a bit about it, I have only seen the movie, and have not opened up the book. So, I am not qualified to discuss the literary merits of Ms. Meyers. But I actually have quite a bit to say about the abomination that is the Twilight movie.
It’s terrible. It is truly god-awful. If Stephanie Meyer had a plot and a message in her book, it really didn’t show in the movie at all. The characters were dull, uninteresting, and the whole thing looked like an album cover for an emo boy band. I can see a salvagable story there, which is why I’m inclined to believe the books might have merit. But the way the actress playing Bella appears to practically sleepwalk through her role, the way she doesn’t seem to care about ANYTHING except Edward (that bland look on her face throughout was just awful), it us just a dull and uninteresting movie.
I’d like to pick apart to things that hit me the hardest in the movie:
1. Edward says that the Cullens are ‘The Vegetarians of Vampires.’ First off, I’m really happy you chose to hunt animals instead of murdering humans for sustenance. Fighting your internal desires and instincts in favor of morality shows a lot of willpower and spiritual strength. But, you’re still hunting down and killing living, breathing things. You’re not a vegetarian, and your a hypocrite for saying so.
2. Vampiric Sparkles. This is what seems to hit all the traditional vampire fans the hardest. And I’ll agree that I’m not overly fond. It’s not the sparkle itself that bothers me, but the way everyone in the movie seems to accept that ‘Sparkle = Vampire.’ We have glitter, folks. If I see a sparkling man in the sunlight, I guarantee you ‘Vampire’ will be the furthest word from my mind.
So… Twilight, is it good?
Well, I’ll maintain the movie is horrible. But based on the responses here, I’ll have to give the book a solid maybe.
Try it out.
Zel-kun out.
Wakko’s Wish
Posted by Zel-kun on June 25th, 2010 filed in Random Bits1 Comment »
When I was younger, I freaking loved the Animaniacs. I loved them to the point that my younger brother had a tough time explaining to his friends came over that I wasn’t retarded, as I sang along to the theme song. I was a naive young lad, and even though I thought the show was hilarious, I didn’t pick up on a lot of the hidden humor. I go back and watch it now, and I still roll on the ground with laughter. That show had some pretty dirty moments, and so fast-paced that you’ll miss them if you blink.
If you were a fan, and yet you have no idea what I’m talking about here, please see this Nostalgia Critic special where he lists the eleven naughtiest moments.
When the Animaniacs movie, Wakko’s Wish, showed up in the recommended comedies in my Netflix queue, I had to add it. It sat there for a long time, amidst Zai’s foreign movies, and my television shows. I guess we both needed to be in a certain mood to watch a wacky cartoon. But last night I worked late, and I came home in a mood to laugh, so I decided to watch it. Luckily, Zai is also a big Animaniacs fan, so I wasn’t watching it alone.
It starts off promising, they obviously had money to do this movie, and they spent it on drawing snowflakes. I figured if they had that amount of resources to dedicate on drawing snowflakes, they must have done amazingly with everything else. Then they start singing…
Now, traditionally, the songs on Animaniacs are either hilarious, catchy, or both. Well, these were not. They were forgettable, uninspired, and almost completely devoid of humor. And these songs did not end, the first half of the movie nearly crosses the line between musical and opera. That could be forgiven, I suppose, but the writing was very sub-par as well. I remember the average episode being incredibly fast-paced, offering one-two punches of comedy that kept you either laughing or at least smiling and rolling your eyes. This plot and the writing moved at a snail’s pace. All the events and conversations could have probably been compressed into a half-hour episode, but they waste time on pointless exposition, and actually trying to give the character’s depth.
Normally this is a good thing. But these are the effing Animaniacs. I’m supposed to be laughing at them, I should hear Yakko cracking jokes with the speed and wit of Groucho Marx, Wakko should be entertaining me with his idiocy, complacency, and ability to eat anything, and Dot should just be, well, Dot. They had a synergy about them where they just amplified the humor as it bounced back and forth. I should not have to watch a sappy scene where Dot coquettishly hacks and coughs her way through a bedtime story where she’s a princess… TWICE.
This is not to say the movie was terrible… it’s just that there could have been a LOT more there. The movie lost itself in the storytelling, and that’s not really why you watch the Animaniacs. This is not to say the movie was without redeeming qualities, and occasional joke here and there, but those were far and few in between.
1. Pinky and the Brain – Any scene staring them was just as funny as ever. You could have cut the entire rest of the movie, leaving about ten minutes of their footage, and you’d have a pretty good short.
2. The Climax – This is where the three do their classic three-point attack of extreme annoyance to the villain. The jokes were fast-paced and some fairly adult. It was the first and only scene that actually felt like the show.
That was pretty much it. As I said, you could have easily cut this down to a half-hour episode. I think they just tried to do too much, and in the end, accomplished less than the average episode.
But hey, at least they had well-drawn snowflakes.
Zel-kun out.
Back Into Azeroth
Posted by Zel-kun on June 15th, 2010 filed in Gaming2 Comments »
When I played my first MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot, I was addicted. It wasn’t particularly fun, and even for its time the graphics weren’t great, and the controls weren’t great, but it was definitely something different. I only made it to like… I think level 25 or so, and if nothing else, it was addictive. What eventually did me in were the many ways they punished their players. If you died, you automatically rezzed back in town. This means that if you had painstakingly worked your way through a dungeon, killing the monsters as you went, all that hard work was now gone. Now you have to start all over, they’ll have all respawned by the time you get back.
But at least you have benefited from all the kills then, huh? Afraid not, you likely lost more experience when you died than you made getting down there. I finally gave up the game when I spent about three hours killing things for exp, then one death took all of that away, the game was turning into an exercise in futility. Battles were a pain, I remember that the enemies were color coded for my convenience, from grey to purple. Grey indicated that the monster was way below you and worth no exp, whereas purple indicated that you were about to be raped horribly. In the middle of that was yellow, the ideal kill. It was an enemy roughly your level, and worth decent exp. Lower levels were easier to kill but worth a lot less, whereas anything higher you could not kill on your own. Killing a yellow took all your strength, and left you bruised and bloody. If you were unfortunate enough to get more than one, you were screwed.
So, after about a month or so, I canceled my subscription. Awhile later I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy XI. I figured I loved Final Fantasy, so their game should be awesome. The game was a bit of a grind, just installing the damn thing took eight hours and I had to sacrifice a goat to get it to run. So I started the game and began pawing at the screen, because it was pretty. I started my character and began playing. Even though I had friends playing the game, I couldn’t play with them, because they randomize the server you get to play on. I apparently had to buy some sort of ‘World Pass.’ All other games call this feature the ‘click the server you want’ button. Amazing… I had to install a giant resource-hogging browser to log into the game, and it didn’t have such functionality as a freaking server list?
I played the game pretty much nonstop for about two weeks, killing rabbit after rabbit. Occasionally the rabbits killed me because I assumed a normal-looking rabbit was a normal rabbit, when in fact it was some sort of demon rabbit bent on world domination. It took this long to FINALLY save up for my first armor upgrade… at like… level 5 I think. I was excited at the thought of new armor, not just for the protection value, but because my character will finally look different than a starting character.
Oh he did, all right. He looked like a damn prostitute. I spent a week leveling up a character, then turned him into a prostitute. WTF.
That was enough for me. I clicked the uninstall button and canceled my subscription.
A few years after that, a good friend assured me that World of Warcraft was the greatest thing since cubed bread (croutons). I had played Warcraft III, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I was amazed by how many problems it avoided, that seemed to be accepted by its predecessors.
Installation was a breeze, even though updating took FOREVER. Character creation was simple, and within minutes I was playing. I was shocked at how easy it was to pick up, even without the tutorials, it was pretty much a no-brainer: Right-click people, accept quest, right-click enemy, hit blatantly-numbered key with your attack. Repeat forever.
Quests made sense, and were somewhat varied (as much as an MMO can be, I guess). I understood where I needed to go and what I needed to do. And even in the days of vanilla WoW, leveling was pretty fast. The game was conducive BOTH to solo play and grouping. When you died, you could run back to your body as a ghost, so you didn’t have to fight your way back. When you came back, you didn’t lose exp. It was fun, with lots of goofy emotes and enough humor injected into the game itself to keep it entertaining. In short, the game was good.
I fell in and out of the game several times over the years. I would play for a couple weeks, then take a break, I would play for a day, then maybe not log in for a month. This trend continued until about last year, while I was house-hunting, and decided I had neither the time nor the inclination to play, so I canceled my subscription.
A few months ago, we began itching for an MMO. We figured that since we had finally escaped the clutches of WoW, we would try out Aion, a Korean MMO that had a whole Angels vs. Demons motif. I’m really into the whole battle-angel thing, so we thought this would be a good things to try. It was great at first, but as time passed, we noticed a lot of issues:
1. Crafting and Gathering was ridiculous.
It seemed cool at first, with characters able to take as many professions as they wanted, but became overly burdensome very quickly. For example, to make a sword, I would have to go out and get a ton of iron, smelt that iron into bars, then forge a bunch of different parts for the sword, then hunt down monsters with the hope of dropping ‘fluxes’, then buy the items that can’t be gathered or made, then craft it.
While a little burdensome, it wasn’t all that bad. The problem comes in when you actually have all the materials and hit the ‘craft’ button. First off, what you normally craft is garbage, any sword you can make will be of roughly same quality as anything you’ll get just wandering around killing monsters. You want to make several swords with the hope of making a ‘noble’ version, which is higher quality and is actually something you are proud to have made. So, barring all the other components, just farming the fluxes for one weapon you want takes hours upon hours, because you’ll waste them making the subpar weapons.
The second thing is that when you click that ‘craft’ button, you just might fail. While it’s irritating at lower levels, I’ve heard stories of max-level smiths going to dungeons to kill bosses and finally getting the component to make their weapon, then FAILING in the craft and losing all the components.
2. Welcome to the grind
While not as bad as others, the grind definitely takes its toll, especially since your character is exceptionally vocal. Every time you cast a spell, you get to hear them shout the name of the spell in whatever language they speak. And even if you turn that off, your character still shouts constantly (Aaaah! Yeeeeehaaaa! Whaaaaa!). The enemies were tough, and the fights didn’t seem like they could go any differently as you leveled. The combination of moves felt very… samey?
3. Flying? What’s that?!
In this game, every character has wings, and has the opportunity to fly around. That alone could sell me the game. I thought how awesome it would be to fly around, have mid-air battles, and explore the countryside in a fun new and unique way. Except you can’t. You can only fly for about a minute (an unnecessary limitation), and only in specific and tiny regions. I’m puzzled by this. You give me wings, and an open sky, flying SHOULD happen. When you take away that ability, you’re telling me you didn’t design the game well enough to fly, because I would expose the incomplete continent designs. This is the same reason you can’t fly in the original WoW lands after the addition of flying. However this is understandable, because flying mounts weren’t introduced until years after the game’s release. And also, because they ARE working on implementing it. What this tells me, when I can’t fly in a game DESIGNED for flying, is that you’re just being lazy. So, at least we get mid-air battles then? Nope. In the sky there’s nothing. If there WERE monsters, you could fight, but there’s nothing but a few gathering nodes in the sky. Well at least you can fly and fight the ground enemies with ranged attacks? Nope, enemies auto-evade when you’re in the air. So congratulations Aion, you took an awesome concept and did as little with it as possible.
4. Customization?
While it is great that there’s nearly unlimited options for visually customizing your character, things I would like to see implemented in other games, there’s nothing else. As you level, there’s no skill points, or talents. So your level 20 templar is exactly like anyone else’s. I may be spoiled by WoW here, but you need to let your players define their own skill set, it lets them have more control over the game they’re investing so much time into.
So, I was playing Aion a few weeks ago, when I realized that pretty much every complaint I had about Aion, was addressed in World of Warcraft. So now I have reactivated my account, and am delving once again into the largest MMO out there. I would like another MMO to topple WoW, if just for the variety, but the fact remains that so far, WoW is simply the best at what it does.
Zel-kun out.