Hotbed

You know, its rare that I'm actually shocked and appalled at something. I consider myself a freakishly liberal guy. You know, the typical controversial shit: I think legalizing drugs is okay, prostitution should be legal, abortion is a-okay with me, etc.

But this article here...There's a whole level of controversial that I don't think I'm adequately equipped to speak about. Sure I can throw out opinions, but to realistically, informatively inform a reader about infantcide (just the word makes me cringe), and the killing of depressed folks, old folks, anyone in a coma...

Look, when I was a kid, I was pretty depressed. I had my down moments. For a long time I went through that shit. Suffered? Eh, perhaps, but I wouldn't necessarily put it that way. It's definitely something I look back at and am glad I'm no longer in that state of mind, but also realize it is just that: a state of mind. That doesn't mean, even though I thought of suicide often back then, that anything would or should come of it. Instead of administering drugs, these doctors could actually fucking kill you. That is just too much for me and makes me wonder what in the hell is going on in the Netherlands.

I'm all about people having their own business. It is not my business if you worship the devil any more than I need to know what you bought at the grocery store. But when it begins to affect others, lines need to be drawn. Atheists are not immoral, nor are we against drawing a line between right and wrong. These are things that are universal. These are also things that seem to have been completely lost in some parts of the Netherlands based on the article I linked above.

It boggles the mind that these things go on, and that aren't seen as wrong. But some people have basically taken their freedoms and their God complexes a bit too far. I think it's time this issue get some light, and be seen as more than a mere trivality.

Blade: Diffusion

So my good bud Jeremy, who always gets the Sweet Free Movie Preview Hookup, provided me with an early peek at Blade: Trinity. How did it do? Well...

First of all, Ryan Reynolds absolutely saves this film. Were it not for his constant, good-natured presence, the film would've dissolved into overwrought garbage, which is what most of the film ends up being.

And let me state that when Parker Posey does a worse acting job than Triple H in his film debut, something is terribly wrong. I'm not kidding here folks. Just try not to cringe as she delivers the first few lines of the film.

To throw out some Story Elements, the picture is supposed to be the final of the Blade films. And frankly, I'm glad. But otherwise, this one has to do with the Vampires knowing that Blade is going to kick their ass, so they resurrect the First Original No Seriously This Time Vampire, Dracula from his home in Iraq (?!). Yes, the same one that Saddam ruled for awhile. Now, of course, he must conform to cooler, more hip times and is called Drake. Played with stinging ferocity by Dominic Purcell, I can't really fault the guy. He did his best and he was effective at times.

This one was directed by David S. Goyer, the same guy who wrote the other Blade films. And while Blade II was a joy, something I now note was almost totally delivered though the direction skills of Guillermo Del Toro, Blade Trinity suffers from overwrought, unneeded scenes and is saved only by the humor that is dosed into the script at almost every turn.

I admit, this is a pretty critical review for a comic book movie. This is a film that isn't going to win any awards (not even the MTV kind), but does make you remember a few things:

- Jessica Biel is hot, hot, hot
- Crossbows are super cool (and always will be)
- Fire all projectionists who accidentally switch two reels in the middle of the film(!)
- This movie is a two hour commercial for iPods

Yes, I said it. Suddenly in the midst of SWAT cops getting mowed down by an old man with a shotgun, and vampires at every turn, Jessica Biel has to stop and load up iTunes so she can load up her Ass Kicking Music And Pump It Hard When She Kills. This of course negates any type of realism (comic book...its just a comic book...) of listening for vamps to come waltzing up from behind, but hey: It gave me a slow motion jacket zip-up, complete with techno and sultry lips shot. It ain't all bad.

But overall, this film is a failure in comparison to either of the previous two. Sure it's got a nice style in the title sequence, but there are segments of the film that are just so unnecessary that make you wonder if they exist only to show off Neat-O Weaponry and Wow, Look How THIS Can Kill Vampires type projectiles.

Last night, I caught myself watching 30 minutes of Daredevil. You remember, that supposedly disaster of a comic book film, the same that's launching Jennifer Garner's Elektra this February? Well, it not only wrapped me in its leather-bound arms almost immediately, it reminded me that Blade Trinity lacks the care that its prequels had. The series now has turned into a joke-a-minute, complete with comedy powerhouse Reynolds and Wesley Snipes doing awful one-liners and making baby sounds for chuckles.

So long Blade, its too bad the series had to end on such a down note.

My Score: 5/10

And Now With Special Sauce

Lots of stuff to cover here, as I've been busy here lately.

First up: This guy has a hilarious resume` (no, I'm not going to hunt for the right character to make that look correct). The heavy french accent makes it all the more enjoyable.

This makes me think of my own resume. According to the company here, I beat out around 150 applicants, around the same number of people who had applied for ORNL, as I recall. This makes me a Lucky Guy (and I certainly know it), and makes me appreciate my job. It also makes me think, in contrast to the french guy's very creative and funny resume video, that I believe my resume was pretty boring but informative.

During the Dark Period, I scoured the websites, I called the companies with listings, I hounded those who responded, and I worked monster.com for all its worth. I think if I learned anything, Monster.com Is Where Job Seekers Go To Die. I would love to find someone who found a great job through that service. And if they did, how long it took them, because it must've been fucking decades. Plenty of jobs were posted with me being the perfect fit. All I can think is that there are total geniuses competing, or, as I did frequently, just so many people applied for jobs that they might not be totally qualified for that it all turned into white noise.

Did I get my current job through any job posting web service? You bet your ass I didn't. No job I have ever attained in my life has been through anything but the newspaper. This is a fact that I will still deny if I begin looking for another job (which I don't forsee any time soon, this place is the bomb dizzle).

Okay, more Interesting Shit(tm): Feedburner is very, very cool. I have registered my blog there, as each blogger knows they yearn for readership in some way. You try your best to spread and infect (yes the terminology is wonderful), and hope in some way that you can get your hooks in whatever readers you feel are necessary. Blogging is The Big New Thing, something I suppose the world is finally catching on to. But as for me, I'll be happy with a few more readers, and comments would be nice too.

Lastly, this is fucking ridiculous. Boy, I can't wait until Virtual Whore comes out, where you have to hit the X button at a certain rate of speed to get the John off. Wow, somebody copyright that! That game would be brilliant! Sigh...

LOST

I hope everyone has seen the great new show built around the concept of a Lord of the Flies meets Gilligan's Freaky Island. It's the good shit.

I also, thinking of the show, revert to the past 3 months of my existence. What I will commonly refer to as my Dark Period. Where I had no job, everything was tense and a struggle, and the world basically wasn't doing me any favors. Every day something new and worrying would arise, and the simple act of getting groceries could cause major headaches/heartaches and stress.

Now while I'm finally coming out of the dark shell that was that period, I'm certainly not out of the woods yet. Having cut yourself off from income for three months will destroy your credit and cause headaches which probably won't work themselves out until sometime next year. This goes without saying that I've had plenty of calls from creditors, and no they weren't asking how I was doing.

It feels as if I lost an entire season. The days went from bright, hot, and sunny, to cold and empty. The leaves dead on the trees, the bite of the breeze. The time seems to have simply slipped away from me, lost to the awful wind. I love Fall, its my favorite time of year, and when there is no employment and no income to waste doing activities outdoors, it seems as though I simply didn't have one this year. As if it went on sabbattical, to await better outcomes next year.

While I'm very thankful to be in my new position, I do wish the process had been sped up. Each day it seemed as though this was the time when the job opportunity would arise, and when this place would call and finally stop stalling. And when it did came, it was just in time. I'm one of those lucky bastards who gets windfalls when he desperately needs one, and the final windfall I landed on a safe place from which to build from.

What is the real tragedy in all this is that I never heard from one of my previous coworkers, not a single one. I guess that tells you about me, or tells you plenty about them, I'm not sure which. I've had plenty of post-work get togethers with almost all of them, yet the communication just never came. Such is life I suppose, and life moves on. I've moved on, and I wish those guys the best. Particularly the one heading to Iraq in a month or so. Good luck, don't get shot.

Man, That Ain't Right...

There are so many things wrong with this comic strip collection, it is just...well...fucking hilarious.

Cleaning Out My Closet

So, Day Two here in New Job Land, the place where only happy things grow. Of course, minds and ideals change as the days wear on (see my old postings about ORNL or particularly the Citizens Bank stuff hidden deep into the dark recesses of this blog for proof), but fuck it: I'm happy.

Regardless, I'm slowly getting a grasp on what needs to be done and after a 2+ hour talk with the other geek in charge I believe I have a good idea on where we are and where we need to go to get things moving in the Right Direction (tm). Of course, having a good Geek Compass (available at stores everywhere) should provide us with that direction, and I believe mine is within good working order.

I told you I loved metaphors.

On the World of Warcraft side of things (as there tends to be these days), fear my level 12 Tauren warrior! To put things in perspective against City of Group-Up-Or-Die, I'm level 12 in WoW, but after level 6 or 7 in City of Boredom, you are forced to group up with others or die. All of the baddies travel in packs, something that you learn quite quickly will spell certain doom for yourself. This is where Blizzard simply excels in game design: They recognize that some players simply don't enjoy grouping up. 95% of my time in WoW has been alone, and I like that fact. Sure I've teamed up every now and again, but by en large, I'm alone and I like it that way.

On a game design note, CCG Workshop I think could be a great outlet for some game design ideas of mine. I'm pretty much knee-deep in CCGs, as I work on one and might be starting to work on another, and this is basically a framework/engine that allows you to create your own games and script their behaviors accordingly. I love that idea and if it takes signing an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), I'm not stranger to that. Whatever It Takes, as the saying goes.

Lastly I've kinda stumbled onto a game design I wasn't truly prepared for. I've been on a Half-Life 2 mailing list for awhile now and have spoken with some very cool, interesting people while doing so. Here lately I've kind of stumbled my way into speaking with another guy about the possibility of creating a mod that is very exciting to me and could have big possibilities. We'll see how things end up, but I think if the right people get together on this Big Things Could Happen. Definitely a side project, but I really enjoys the Labors O' Love, and this sounds like one of those ordeals.

Day One

Wow, so here I am sitting in my office at my new job. To say its "Teh Pimp" as the kids say, well, is to probably guess right. While I can sense the waves of responsibility crashing on my workmanship shore (god I love metaphors), there is definitely something going right in this place that I can just sense and can't wait to get started.

To continue with my metaphors before I touch on a more entertaining subject, this network is new, like a child, a prepubescent that can't wait to get out there start Living Like A Grown Up. This involves, of course, bills and responsibility, the two things that are most shielded from children, but nevertheless the desire is what drives the goal, not the other way around. Now how I nurture this child-like network is to be seen. But I definitely see room for improvement already, things that will be spoken of more in depth tomorrow.

But overall, if you'd like a quick, concise statement on how I feel right now, here it is: Free Soda. That's right, free drinks. Never had it, really enjoy it. The employment is just that good.

Now, the entertainment I promised: Here it is. For those who don't read the dot, well, you probably didn't see the excellent interview with Tycho that was posted today. He mentioned Boy on a Stick and Slither, whose readership probably went up a billion today. Nevertheless, I quickly scanned the archives and found a really great one that currently resides as my favorite. It don't get no whiter than translucent. Word.

Ah, employment. It's a great feeling.

Doomed

This case mod is absolutely incredible! All of that work and it remains unfinished...I can't imagine how cool it will be when it's actually done.

Case modding is such an interesting hobby...

Savage Beatdown

So my wonderful, excellent, amazing wife provided me with World of Warcraft. My life will never be the same. Whether I'm a dwarf-girl trying to coax the magic world to my will or a Tauren (a huge standing bull type creature) with a huge beatstick ("That's a huge bitch!" as some would say), I am very entrigued by the entire idea of it all.

My wife also saw fit to get me a case of Bawls, as if I didn't already have incentive enough to stay up and play the game.

So how is it, you ask? Well, it's definitely better than The MMORPG That Shall Not Be Named. Why? Well, WoW is based on quests. While the former is just "Go kill bad guys!" or "Go kill tougher bad guys in...this location over here!" or "Go kill criminals...with your friends!", this is a true immersive experience that is built on a quest system. And the world...I mean, wow the actual environment itself is amazing in its uniqueness from race to race (and I've only tried two races so far, the dwarves and the Tauren), with amazing landscapes and a sense of scope that is just unmatched by anything I've seen to date.

I'm not thrilled with getting killed, as no one really deserves to be, but nevertheless I am happy that this happens infrequently and with my latest character I've really learned that the game is designed in such a way that you should take the quests given by non-player characters as you get them. Don't try to rush to the next locale, simply do the tasks at hand and enjoy the experience. Anything else will see you ambushed and bring you many, many deaths. This means you have to run back to your body or take a big experience loss. And the latter just really isn't an option.

In the end I think it will take awhile before I've truly formed a solid opinion on the game. My experiences now are like discovering Play-Doh as a kid: Right now everything is colorful and can be shaped to my liking. Now the question is, am I doing the quests to find the playset, or am I inside the playset and just can't see the seams?

Either way, I'm hooked.

Speaking of a beatdown, I learned how to play Vs. System the other night while at Friday Night Magic. What is it, you say? Well, it's another CCG created by Magic players and published by Upper Deck. The game itself, and the more I learn of it, is very interesting, and as its not quite as popular as it perhaps deserves to be I think I have a shot at getting in on the ground floor and winning a few tournaments and perhaps even prize money. You can read more about it over at metagame, which includes plenty of card links and ideas on how best to play.

I've experienced plenty of CCGs in my day, and this one is very promising. The new sets push the boundaries of the experience a little more each day, and that's a good thing. I'm excited to share the game with friends of mine, if they're willing to learn. More on this As It Develops.

Lastly, tomorrow is the first day of my new job! Woohoo! I've had quite a few stops by the office, and I'm very happy of this career move. The more I actually spend time there, the more I'm sure that this is Where I Should Be (tm). There were close calls with K-VA-T Food Stores (ie, Food City), and IPIX corporation, but in the end I think that this was the best choice out of all of them. The first one required me to move, the second might've been too stressful or too much travel. This one has good benefits, albeit with some pricey insurance, but in the end I think the small size of the company and the people there-in will make a big difference.

I'll be sure to post Day One reactions sometime tomorrow evening. Now, it's time to roam the earth as a Tauren and stomp some ass.