Bookish Tuesday - Ender's Game

Yeah, I know I'm incredibly late to the game here, but I finally read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game a couple weeks back, and I will admit it is quite good. As a piece of science fiction that looks at an incredibly accurate vision of the future of technology (I must say, I was astounded at how much Card was able to predict 30 years ago), this book is amazing. The story itself is also quite good also, telling the story of Ender as he progresses from a 6 year old child sent to a military training installation in space all the way to the war itself.

Without revealing too much, the book does a good job of questioning the ethics of war and space colonization, although at times it almost feels like its being beaten into the ground (not often, but there were times). The only major gripe I had with the book is that the end was a little to hokey. It does a great job wrapping things up and answering questions, but I didn't quite feel that they happened naturally as if they were almost tacked on to make sure that when the sequel was ready all the information was set. Speaking of the sequel, it is sitting on my dresser, but I doubt I will read it for quite a while. It's not that I don't want to read more about Card's universe he created, but... how do I put this.... it wasn't written by Douglas Adams. That about explains it.

As part of proof that we have all run out of new ideas, Ender's Game is now being repackaged as a comic book, a new video game, and (although in production hell, as far as I know) a movie. With that, I'm moving on to a subject that I don't have time to talk about at length right here, but will definitely be a recurring theme, I have to say that while I do like some adaptations and such, books are normally created to be books (same with movies, games, comics, tv shows, etc.). When Douglas Adams adapted H2G2 from the radio drama to the books, he knew that it had to be different. He knew that things that worked in radio weren't meant to work in books and vice versa. Same with his adaptation to the small screen and (although I'm not exactly sure how much of his script was used) to the big screen.

It's not that I think books can't be adapted to film, but they always seem to lose some magic in the transition. Your imagination and mental pictures are replaced by whatever the directer/screenwriter chose to see. It's now hard to think about Harry Potter without picturing Daniel Radcliffe or Gandalf without seeing Ian McKellan. They both have done wonderful jobs portraying the characters, but it still holds your mind back from seeing something different.

That little bit is just chapter one of what I'm sure will be an ongoing saga about transitions between media. To return to the original point of the post, Ender's Game is great, really great. The only problem with it is that it wasn't Douglas Adams.

Movie Monday: Step Brothers

Saturday night I was able to trick Katie and a couple of friends into seeing Step Brothers. I say "trick" because none of them claimed to know that it was rated R and were surprised by the fact that we were all carded going into the theater. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting that much over it either. Of the reviews I had read, yeah, it was supposed to be raunchy, but I haven't had my ticket stub checked going into a theater since Star Wars Episode 3.

To put it simply, Step Brothers is funny. Very funny. Of course, this completely depends on your sense of humor, and I'm pretty sure that if you've seen the previews you know whether you are interested or not. That said, unlike other movies, the best parts are nowhere near the previews. Sure, those parts are silly, but the best parts of the movie are when they are able to take an idea and completely let loose. There is also something to say about the writing, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are exactly like two 9/10-year-old boys, and that is what makes the movie so funny. They throw temper tantrums, have tree houses, practice karate in the garage, and are completely dumb.

Let's face facts here. As I've said before, you know whether or not you want to see this movie, and I'm almost positive that my little review here isn't going to change any minds, so if you've seen it, let me know what you thought. And if you haven't, let's hear why you aren't seeing it. Are you against it? Do you think it looks dumb? Can't afford another movie ticket and would rather see Tropic Thunder? All good reasons, but I just want to know (I know I would have rather seen X-Files, but I got shot down).

And that's that. See you on the morrow.

Religion Friday!

This has been the hardest post for me to get started. I don't really know how I want to do these Friday posts. You see, for me, thinking and pondering God and Faith are easy. There are limitless ideas and philosophies about this God character that my mind can easily hop into that. However, when it comes to expressing these particular thoughts as words (whether through writing or verbally), I never know what to say and wind up just being frustrated and mostly saying nothing (just ask my wife).
So, when I was discussing my ideas for the five blog days, my brother suggested God for a day. I balked immediately at the subject, trying to take movies and tv and put them into two separate days or take comics and make them separate from books. Really I was just turning my fears of being able to do justice to the subject of faith into complaints, so I tried to say that I didn't want to alienate people; but, my brother made a great point. He said that if God was a large part of my life (moreso than fleeting dumb things like movies and games), and I'm not afraid to give semi-controversial statements there (Transformers sucks, btw) then why can't I just give my thoughts on something a bit more important to me. Now, I must confess, I just paraphrased a bit there, it may not be exactly what he said, but it's what I got out of it, and that's what really matters here.
What is it that makes it so hard for me to write about God (now anyway, if you look through old posts, I'm pretty sure I had no problem)? Is it because I get so upset about people trying to confine God into a catchphrases and bumper sticker theology that I'm worried that I'll wind up doing the same? Definitely. Or, is it the fact that I don't like to be wrong and want to spend my time searching for answers rather than taking time to discuss things I've already found? Well, that too.
Basically, what it comes down to is the fact that I don't know, and because I don't know, I'm hesitant to say anything for fear that I am wrong. But, you see, the thing about the subject of God is that (aside from a few key basic things I think we can all agree on), no one really knows the exact answer. Sure, we can theorize and conject our ideas about what this means or what someone was saying here in the Bible or whatever, but no one actually knows.
For that reason, I shall do my best to put my actual thoughts down here. Not just what I think people want to read, but what I truly think and believe. I mean, if I can gush about video games and movies that other people think are dumb without a second thought. I should be able to do that here.
I know that this wasn't really as much about Religion or God as it is about my own dealings therein, but then again, isn't that exactly what our Faith winds up being?

Gaming Thursday - Final Fantasy 4 or Why Paladins Rock My World

So, I was working on this post earlier today and had a good page and a half of notes down in my little journal, however I left that journal at work and am now going on pure memory! Anyway, today is the first Video Game Thursday, and in an effort to stay with this weeks mega release,( I've decided to talk about Final Fantasy 4. Now, just to let you know, this isn't a review in any way (I actually haven't played it in years, and although I'd like to pick up this DS iteration, I probably won't be able to for a little while). Also, these will more than likely not remain current with games as they come out, since I can't afford to buy new games each week, but I'll do my best to have it a mixture between reminiscing about past games, reviews of current games, and news about upcoming games. For an awesome, non-personal look at the Final Fantasy games, I highly recommend you check out this series of videos. I will embed their look at Final Fantasy 4 at the end for your enjoyment.

So, in all my Super Nintendo days, my RPG focus tended towards Earthbound and Final Fantasy 6, so I don't really remember playing FF4 until my college years when I got hooked on emulation. I must confess, I don't think I've ever finished playing through Final Fantasy 4, but it has left quite an impression on me in one way. You see, you begin the game as Cecil the Dark Knight. He's all cool and moody and really powerful, but conflicted about his role.

There comes a point in the game where you are guided to a temple where Cecil must confront himself in order to find the light within. After a particularly difficult battle with yourself(at least as far as I remember), you come out a changed man - transformed from a Dark Knight to.... a Paladin! As anyone who has played World of Warcraft, Diablo, D&D, or any similar sort of game with me knows, Paladins are pretty much my favorite all around class, and I think it comes back to this game. Even though Cecil isn't exactly all that powerful as a Paladin, something about playing through the first few hours of the game as a semi-bad guy, only to come to a point where you make this change into good really stuck with me. I've come to really like the idea of the holy warrior character (particularly because I like to be able to keep my health up... I'm kind of OCD about that). So, Cecil receives a cheer from me for inspiring my love of Paladins!

The game plays pretty much like a regular SNES Final Fantasy (which isn't a bad thing at all), so I don't remember much else aside from the twin magicians Polum and Palum (I think), and the fact that I'd love to get the 3d remake for DS here as soon as I can. I had other points that I had meant to hit in this post, but I completely forgot them along with my journal at work. Next week's gaming post will likely be better, if only because it will be about a game that I know a lot better than Final Fantasy 4. And since I couldn't do the game justice, here is the GameTrailers Retrospective on FF4 for your enjoyment:



Until tomorrow!

The New (and Hopefully Improved) Blog

First of all, for those of you who are shocked (and delighted) that I have made two posts in two days, I have decided to give this blog some good attention in order to help me with my writing skills and to hopefully keep you entertained. What I am hoping to do is to update the blog 4-5 days a week, with each day taking a theme. Right now I have Mondays for Movies/TV, Tuesdays for Books, Wednesdays for World/News, Thursdays for Games, and Fridays for God. So, if this were real, you would be tuning in today to see my thoughts/opinions on what's going on in the world.

Not every post will be the epic that yesterday's was (that was seriously draining, and required hours of Rock Band therapy), but I do hope to craft each post to be both thoughtful and thought provoking. I doubt that I will be able to do it each time, but I would like you to join with me to help make it better by submitting thoughts, praises, and criticisms. I would really like this to be something that helps me to become a better writer and be able to transfer these skills into writing other things.

I have briefly considered adding Google AdSense so that I might be able to take in some revenue off of the site, but until I get going at a good clip and trust myself enough to do this regularly, I'll hold off.

So, spread the word!!! Get people to read for me, I would love to be able to get comments from a wide variety of ages and peoples, so let a friend or two know. Give them a sample of a previous entry you liked and get 'em hooked.

Tomorrow, the gig shall begin for real with the first Game Thursday, in which I will talk about Square Enix... particularly Final Fantasy 4, which came out on DS this Tuesday (although, I'm warning you now, it will more than likely devolve into me talking about Final Fantasy 6, because I can't help it). See you then!

A Different Sort of Review

Before I go into my special Dark Knight review, I must request that, if you don't know what Psychonauts is, to click here. Did you read it? I hope so, because for my take on Dark Knight, I shall present it as a build of Psychonauts, as in separated into different levels so that it is not just a rehash of every other review of Dark Knight that is out there, but instead we shall examine the minds of the characters and see where their flaws lie (one of the great themes of the film) and also how awesome it would be to see it presented in one of my favorite games ever (yeah, I know its a last generation game, but wouldn't it be so awesome if Double Fine made DLC with extra levels to play through?) One more thing before we begin... there will be spoilers ahead, so if you are just here for a recommendation, I say go see Dark Knight, but if you want to go a little further with me, read on (quick note, these levels aren't in any particular order, they are just coming as I think of them)...

Bruce Wayne/Batman's Level - Yeah, I know they could be two separate levels, but for the sake of time, I'll do it as one.
As Razz enters into this level, it becomes apparent that Bruce's mind is a reproduction of Wayne Manor, large and sprawling. Of course, when you enter into the main foyer, it's beautiful and expansive, and everything is decorated with pictures of Gotham City... and bats, because these are things that are constantly parts of Bruce's mind, they permanently etched into places all throughout the mansion.
The first wing that you are granted entry to is one of Bruce's playboy personality. The colors are bright, and the figments (little collectibles within the game) are represented by champagne glasses, expensive cars, tuxedos and such. The main issue in this wing of the manor is the fact that it is a huge piece of the manor, and yet you can tell that it is neglected, Bruce dislikes this part of his mind, and although it is clearly in use quite often, the rest of the mansion does it's best to shut this part out and keep it there just for show. As you work your way through that wing, you encounter Bruce's representation of himself within and must convince him that although this part of him may seem to be a waste, it is in fact a very important part that he must learn to use more to fight justice, rather than relying on his alter-ego.
Speaking of that alter-ego, once you can convince Bruce of the importance and neccessity of actually being Bruce, you can move on to the Batman wing of the Mansion. Here, things are dark, and the figments are represented by Bat gadgets, weapons, and the occasional criminal. Within this wing, you learn of Bruce's obsessions. He hinges his entire being on this "hero" that he has created. So much so that the only way to pull Bruce out of this part of his mind before it can be sucked into the massive vortex of obsession in the middle (yeah, I forgot to mention it earlier, because I just made it up) is by finding Rachel in the mansion. For some reason, it's not the promise of a safer Gotham, or even a happy life that can make him willing to give up the mask, the only thing that he finds bright is Rachel. His cravings for her attention and approval are represented by secret rooms that are easy to find because the doors are constantly left partially open with rays of light coming from the cracks. Inside these rooms, the walls are covered with memories of Bruce and Rachel throughout their times together, both as adults and as children.
Once you beat the level, you think that somehow Bruce's mind will be changed and guided to something of a balance between his desire for justice as Batman, and his ability to help bring justice as Bruce Wayne as well. However, as in the movie, Bruce is unable to separate this desire from his very being, and as you leave his mind, everything that you had changed to help him, slowly begins to revert back to the state that it once was.

Rachel's Level -
Rachel's level is similarly divided as Bruce's. However as much as her love for Bruce is represented in her mind, it is clear that while it was once at the forefront, it has been taken over by Harvey. Figments are represented here by posters for Harvey's campaign, lawyer accessories, and the occasional bat. Unlike Bruce's mind, which is closed off into the (albeit large) mansion, Rachel's psyche is represented as the grounds around the mansion, where holes that were once wells and trees prohibit too much wandering. Her mind is fixated (like that of Bruce's and later Harvey's) on justice and peace. Although, her's is brightly lit with hope from the future (hey, I don't know how to represent it in the game, I'm just writing it, not making it). Her level will have the feel of a 2D platformer... very linear and lots of jumping, with you travelling through the grounds of the Wayne Manor, with flashes of Harvey and Bruces' faces appearing randomly throughout. As you reach the end of the level, you catch up to Rachel who is standing in front of a fork in the path with Bruce on one side and Harvey on the other, and although I'd like to say you get a choice between them, you don't. Rachel smiles at Bruce and tells him something sweet before she walks off with Harvey. As you stand next to Bruce and watch the other two walk off into a beautiful forest, you see a bolt of lightning strike the forest, and are ejected from her mind as it begins to erupt into flames.

Harvey's Level -
Yeah, I know I wasn't going to do these in order, but when you arrive at Harvey and enter into his mind, it is while he is in the hospital after Rachel's death and his rebirth as Two-Face. Razz will be confronted here again by duality (see, there's a theme), this time it is completely obvious. As you enter into Harvey's mind, you find it represented as a huge courthouse. The level alternates between darkness and light at complete random, and the level structure is completely frustrating, because everything is guided by chance. Places that are safe will randomly be turned against you, but not at any particular point in the level, just whenever it feels like it - it's like the level in Psychonauts where you can adjust the play to good or bad, except here you have no control, again, it is random (kind of like his flipping a coin). The problem with the level is that although you feel the animosity in the darkness, it is completely sane. The level is well structured, with nothing out of the ordinary, figments here are represented by coins (that's all, just lots of coins). The goal of the level is to bring both parts of Harvey together, one represented as a whole Harvey in a white suit and, the other a fully burned Harvey in a charred suit (yeah, I know its obvious, but sometimes you just have to go with the easy answer). Anyway, the level ends when the Harveys come together and find that the balance between his light and dark is able to be brought together by the random element found in chance. When the Harveys are brought together, they turn to you and flip a coin, if it comes up good, you finish the level, and if it comes up on the charred side, you die and are forced to do the entire level over again (told you it was frustrating).

Jim Gordon's Level -
Jim's level is represented as the Gotham Police Department. Like all the others within the movie/game Jim's duality is between his job and his love for his family, which is represented in part by his figments, which are his wife and two kids shown at different stages in their lives that he could potentially be missing. Your goal here is to clear out the Department so that Jim can finally find his way home and be with the people he loves. You begin the level on the roof next to the Bat-signal and Jim's representation is covered by the shadows and as you clear different stages of the Department, you can come back to see Jim and find the shadows receding. It's a fairly straightforward level, with criminals and crooked cops haunting the entire place. The hook to the level (and also a sometimes frustrating piece of gameplay) is that Jim is never safe or satisfied. Each time you leave him to clear out different places, you will find him to have wandered off from the last place you left him in order to get more done or to help clear another area on his own. When the level ends, you exit the Police Department and guide Jim home to be with his wife and children, only to hear his phone ring, as you are floating out of his mind.

Finally, The Joker's Level -
Unlike every other level where there is some semblance of structure (and even that theme of duality), the Joker's level is complete chaos. It is represented by the whole of Gotham City in all its urban glory (in fact, now that I think of it, it might even be the hub world of the game). However, it is also structured kind of like The Milkman Conspiracy level in Psychonauts or parts of Super Mario Galaxy, where your perspective is constantly shifting as you walk vertically up walls as they turn into the floor beneath you. The figments here are represented by different knives and cutting tools, as well as various guns and weaponry, and as you "progress" through the city, the Joker's mind will constantly test your choices and humanity's choices, forcing you at points to choose who is more important to save. Also, unlike in the movie, within the Joker's mind humanity is not as kind and forgiving as they turn out in the movie and as people are given the choice as to save themselves or to keep others alive, they will consistently choose themselves, and you will be sidetracked as often as possible in order to try to help those who have been elected to die by others. As you make it to the Joker's representation of himself, you find that he has no issues within his mind and that this chaos is exactly what he desires it to be. Something that he finds exciting because it is unable to be predicted or controlled (just like Harvey's chance). After you get a chance to talk with him wherein he tells you all of this, the level ends as you are pulled from his mind to his maniacal laughter and explosions ringing throughout the city.

That is about all I can think of for the moment, I know I skipped over Alfred and Lucius, but it would be kind of repetetive to go over their own themes of duality through the movie. Basically, the movie is a great representation of this theme (and also of lies and hope -odd matches, huh?). So, I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and I shall be back (hopefully soon), with some more stuff.

P.S. Psychonauts is awesome, and you should play it.

Hancock and such

So, we (my constant summer movie group of 08) went to see Hancock last night and I've got to tell you, it was a great ride.... for about the first hour.

Not that the movie was bad at all. Will Smith did a great job portraying Hancock as this huge jackass of a superhero, Jason Bateman was also quite good as the PR rep, but the problem lies with the story. For the first hour of the movie, we focus on Hancock and his complete inability to relate to the people he's around, and that's exactly how I wanted the movie to stay. It was engaging to watch him turn from a self-centered prick of a superhero into a decent kind of guy but right when they have a chance to take this story to the next level, the writers decide to turn it into something completely different (although not in anyway unexpected). Without giving anything away (because unlike The Happening, I still think it was worth seeing), the movie turns from a really great character study into just another regular superhero movie. Not that it's a bad thing, but when you are setting up a really great premise for the first hour of the movie, only to take that away for the climax and resolution, it really seems cheap.

To sum it all up, it's a good movie that had serious potential to be great, but just got pulled back by its dumb script choices.

On the other hand, the next two weeks are going to have some (hopefully) reallly awesome comic/superhero movies with Hellboy2 dropping next Friday and The Dark Knight a week later.

And by the way, I saw both Wanted and Wall-E last weekend and both were very good, but for completely different reasons. If you really like violent, sometimes vulgar awesomeness, definitely check out Wall-E and if you need a sweet and cute family movie, Wanted is the one for you.

And on the subject of Wanted, the director is a Russian guy who has made 2 really cool movies (with the third part of the trilogy coming soon to America from what I've heard) called Night Watch and Day Watch. They are really slick vampire-type movies that I really recommend people check out.

Peace out.

For the podcast

http://conniedarko.blogspot.com/2007/09/bringing-back-memories.html

Here is the post from last year that I mention in this week's Afterburners

The Happening

So, as part of my summer movie binging, over the past two weeks, I saw Iron Man for my 3rd time, You Don't Mess with the Zohan (which just barely deserves to be mentioned), The Happening, and The Incredible Hulk. For the moment, let's dive into The Happening, and hopefully we'll return to the Hulk on a day sometime in the near future. By necessity, this discussion will include spoilers for the movie, so if you feel like you still want to see it and don't want anything ruined (which, before you get started, I would recommend you read this, just because the main spoiler can change your mind about paying 8 bucks to see this).

The movie starts out quite intriguingly, with people all over Central Park randomly committing suicide. It's a great start to the movie and gets you really excited about finding out what is happening to everyone. The problem is that from there, everything starts to go downhill and never really picks itself back up.

You see, when faced with an unknown attacker that can kill people without you ever seeing, it can be genuinely freaky. This allows the first 30 minutes of the movie to be quite good (aside from the characters/writing, but more on that later). However, after those 30 minutes, you hear the "theory" as to what is causing this. Now, it would have been fine if there were multiple theories proposed to bring in a sort of guessing game as to what is happening, but M. Night doesn't do that. He gives you a crazy guy who puts forth a theory that is never really argued with and winds up being true (which makes sense, since nothing is ever brought up to the contrary).

The problem with this, is that "the happening" is caused by... are you ready? Plants. Yes, plants. The plants are mad at humans for being so evil and they decide to release toxins into the air to protect them from us, and these toxins force humans to kill themselves. So, what I was hoping to be an initial alien invasion (that was my hope from the previews and such), turns out to be a big political statement about us treating the environment better so that it doesn't get pissed off and kill us all off using airborne toxins.

This leaves the suspense in the movie to our main characters running from.... the wind. There is seriously a scene in the movie that focuses on the wind rustling through tree branches and tall grass, while ominous music plays loudly and the characters are forced to run ahead of the wind. Yeah, it's dumb.

But, the problems don't really end with the plot. I could have forgiven the plot if the characters were good, but they were all wooden, one-dimensional pieces. Marky Mark is a good actor, Zooey Deschanel is a good actor, John Leguizamo is a good actor.... but when they aren't given a good script, every time they talk on screen is annoying. Zooey's character in particular bothered the crap out of me, because there really was no point for her and Marky Mark to be fighting, and yet their marriage is "on the rocks," without any real explanation, and what we do wind up seeing, could have been written by a middle schooler with dating problems. Sorry, that sentence wasn't structured very well. Anyway, it leaves the whole movie feeling very empty character-wise and since I found no true depth or real emotion to any of the main characters, it made it all that much harder to empathize and try to pay attention to their problems.

My final gripe with the movie lies with the "R" rating. The commercials all hype up the fact that this is M. Night's first "R" film, and yes this cut should be rated "R" for the violence that is shown, but I honestly think they should have stayed at PG-13 because after the initial death scenes, the later gore in the movie is just violence for the sake of violence. In my opinion, I found the deaths that happened off screen to be far more chilling than the random deaths that get shown. There is a point in the movie where you just hear gunshots, and you know that all of the members of a group are picking up a gun and committing suicide, but you never have to see any of it, and the silence followed by a loud pop followed again by silence, actually gave me goosebumps. Whereas, another part of the movie, a guy walks up to a riding lawnmower and then lays in front of it in order to kill himself nearly made me laugh out loud. I can understand that they were trying to go for a more hardcore suspense/horror audience, but when the script just puts in these moments so that they can show off violence and gore, it just doesn't do it for me.

So, to put all of this together, The Happening was a huge disappointment for me. I went in hoping for M. Night to climb back into good graces after the problems of Lady in the Water, but he just didn't make it. Although, I'll give him credit... there was no huge twist in the movie.

INDY!!!!!

So, it's actually two days later than I thought, but it's a long weekend, so who can blame me?
Anyway, here it is. I'll give it to you straight up... Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is great. Yeah, I said it. It's a great movie, and a really good Indiana Jones movie. Not quite as good as the original trilogy, but it certainly fits in with the feeling of the other three. Now, my only gripes come from the fact that George Lucas obviously wanted his hands in the film a bit too much. Without ruining anything for those who haven't seen yet, all I have to say is monkeys and prairie dogs. Where I swore I read something months ago from Steven Spielberg saying how much they would use practical effects and keep away from CGI, it became apparent from the first 20 seconds of the movie that Lucas disagreed with this. Now, I admit that certain parts of the movie do require CGI effects, but others could have been cut completely (the two mentioned above are my biggest complaints). Aside from that, IJatKotCS (nice acronym, dontcha think?) was a great ride. The movie moves along smoothly and never even really hit a slow point for me. Then again, I could just be biased because of my crushes on both Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, but I find that highly unlikely, because my taste in movies is so perfect that I never fail in finding the best out there.
Overall, the first time I saw Crystal Skull, it was a B+, but after going again, I move my score up to an A- because it felt even better going back to the world of Indy the second time.
Now... if only Prince Caspian had been good, this summer would have been 3 for 3 (Iron Man was great).
Godspeed

BLOGWAR

As I post for the first time in forever, I must let you know that Jody Dunn and I are now at (blog)War. I will be updating this weekend after I've seen Indy for the second time with my final thoughts. But, I just had to put this up so that I could stick it to Senor Dunn.

Podcast contest

Episode 4 of the podcast is up at the usual place. So, here is a place where you can leave your answers for the contest. Take up comment space or drop me an e-mail.

Podcasting again

Episode 2 is out. Same place as last time. Listen and enjoy. I should be updating this blog coming up soon, I have a few ideas brewing, but nothing concrete enough to write about. All of my rambling has gone into the podcast. Make sure to spread the word about the podcast and drop me a line with any comments or queries.

The first Podcast is up

Trey and I finally kept to our word and made our podcast. If you want to listen/download it, head on over to web.mac.com/treyhockman and click on podcast on the top. Take a listen and let me know what you think. Hopefully we'll have a full site up soon enough and have boards/more posts. Enjoy!
PS again that is http://web.mac.com/treyhockman

Bringing back memories

I have decided that it's time for the Disney cartoon series of my youth to be remade as feature films, just like Transformers and the upcoming G.I. Joe and Voltron. I also know that the best way for these to make a crap-ton of money is to make them a hard R and rip off previously successful movies, and for that reason all of these will sound familiar and cheezy (but that is the point). So hold on to your hats for the upcoming amazing releases of:
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers-
The tone is turned down into a gritty crime drama. Monty is found dead from some poisoned swiss. Zipper is the only witness, but before Chip and Dale get a chance to talk to him, he is found hanging from the rafters. As Fat Cat is the only other obvious suspect, the duo (with random appearances by Gadget) chases him down, only to find him absolved of the crime, he claims that all his dastardly deeds were just a game of "cat and mouse" with them. As the plot continues to twist and turn, more and more characters wind up dead, and the big reveal at the end is that Dale did it all (did you not see that coming? I mean just look at his shirt, it totally screams homicidal maniac). The film ends with Chip bringing his cackling partner (or are they brothers too? I never know) to justice and walks away with Gadget, hoping for a brighter future.
Gummi Bears-
A full on epic on the scale of the LotR trilogy. The bears have been forced out of their forest home by an incoming invasion of the ogres, led by the evil Duke Igthorn. In turn, they are forced to recruit an army of mismatched animals and humans to fight back. Mixed in with the amazing epic battles, the movie takes a hard turn and addresses the bears' addiction to gummi juice, as they go through withdrawals (since they lack the ingredients to fuel their drug-based battle lust) they are forced into learning to battle sober. When Grammi Bear dies from lack of juice (her addiction was so powerful), they begin the huge climactic battle, complete with cavalry and dragons. Of course they win the battle and save the forest and return to their drug-filled lives.
TaleSpin-
Taking a page from Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds, Baloo is turned into a gruff and charming smuggler. Set during WW2 (as it seemed to be anyway), the Air Pirates are now Nazis, and Baloo and Kit are sent on a job to deliver secret plans to Allied men behind enemy lines. Halfway through the movie, on their way to the drop point, the Sea Duck is shot down, and Baloo is forced to leave a crippled Kit at and an ally-friendly farm house and deliver the plans alone and to exact extreme revenge. Fighting his way through scores of Nazis (funny side note, my notes for this blog read scores of Zombies, I guess zombies and Nazis are interchangable), armed only with his trusty pistol and cunning, he delivers the plans and helps the Allied forces to destroy a plant that produces Super Nazis. At the climax, Baloo gets into a gruesome and yet incredibly awesome and violent knife fight with one of the final Super Nazis, only to have it end with Baloo jamming his knife upwards through the Nazi's jaw into its brain and saying something really witty. The movie ends with and obvious allusion to a sequel as a Super Nazi rises from the ashes of the burned plant and begins to walk towards the camera (this might even happen in the middle of the credits for extra surprise-ness).
Darkwing Duck-
(I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to do this one). But about 20 minutes into the movie, Darkwing gets imprisoned for his vigilantism after being revealed by super-cop GizmoDuck. While there, a la Rorschach in Watchmen, all his previous foes do their best to return the pain that Darkwing so lovingly dished out to them, only to be thwarted again and again by his genius. Years pass and harden Darkwing into a bitter duck (told in a montage, of course), when Launchpad McQuack, who has been working with lawyers on an insanity angle, finally gets a break and gets Darkwing released into his care. Once out, they plot against GizmoDuck (who we learn to be a corrupt cop at the top of the local mob organization) and the rest of the movie is Darkwing creating a new costume and hitting Gizmo where it hurts, ending with a huge showdown on the roof of Gizmo's penthouse in the driving rain. The final scene is Gizmo lying in a pool of his own blood and oil, having been impaled on a beach chair, and Darkwing walking off into the night, leaving a trail of evidence for the cops to put Gizmo behind bars for a good long time.
DuckTales (whooo!, sorry, couldn't resist)-
Even though they've already had one amazing movie - The Treasure of the Lost Lamp (no seriously, it was really good - even though I haven't seen it in years), which almost put them out of this blog, I decided against it, since I got a really good idea for their movie - yes, you are correct, a heist flick (just like the remade Ocean's 11 and Italian Job). The plot is that Srooge's money have been lost through a phony legal suit with Flintheart Glomgold and he and the McDuck family is forced into poverty. However, under the tech guidance of Huey, Dewey, and Louie and the sexy charm of Webby, they are able to crack Flintheart's uncrackable security system and safe, and just when you think everything is going wrong with the plan it turns out that all the "missteps" we see are really part of the plan and Scrooge walks off with this money intact and the movie ends with the greedy bastard swimming back through his gold coins.

Yeah, I know that it's not that good, but it felt good to write it, I hope you enjoyed it.
Godspeed

7 months

It has been 7 months with nary a word from this site. I've been busy, Katie and I bought a house and got a little kitten (her name is Our Mrs. Reynolds, for all you Firefly fans out there). Aside from all that, I haven't thought of much to write about, I've been meeting a bunch of new friends on WoW from all over the US, and it's pretty dang cool to know that I am playing with people thousands of miles away. I even got mentioned in someone's blog! How cool is that?
Anyway, I'm working on deciding what to do with this blog. Should I keep it up with this sort of stuff (as in what's been going on), or focus on features (like my top lists, reviews, and random nonsense). What do you guys think? If anyone is actually still reading this, let me know!
Godspeed

What Class is Jesus?

As I was in church today, we read a certain scripture that caused me to wonder.... if Jesus was in World of Warcraft, what class would he be? Let me refer you to the scripture that was read today:
Luke 4: 29 - 30 (I'll quote from the NIV, since that is what is sitting in front of me) "They got up, drove him [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way." Now, obviously, here Jesus is displaying either the Rogue talent - Vanish, or the high Mage level talent - Invisibility, because he is able to basically disengage himself from combat and reduce the aggro of the mobs surrounding him to zero, resetting them to their place. However, Jesus cannot be limited to just these two classes, because we hear often of the stories of his healings, and neither Rogues nor Mages can heal very well, unless they are using bandages. And for that reason, I will now break it down into paragraphs for each class and make a case. Then we can decide once and for all what World of Warcraft class Jesus is (because I know you all have been wondering).
Mage - Well, as mentioned above, if Jesus were to be a mage, he would have to be at least level 68, to be able to learn Invisibility. Mages are also a cloth-wearing class, and we know that Jesus wore a cloth robe (more than likely with +intellect and +spirit), but his sandals were more than likely leather which could pose a problem here. Although, he could just wear some cloth ones and make do. Also, the Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance spells that grant a boost in Intellect on party members is likely one of Jesus' favorite, since he tried to use it often on his disciples to get them to understand his parables. One COULD argue that Jesus used Blink to get away from the mob back in Galilee, but I find that argument faulty, because Blink does not have an aggro reducing aspect to it. Another argument for Mages is the fact that Jesus was able to feed the five thousand, and since we all know that Mages are only good for conjuring food and water for their group, this is definitely a big plus. The only huge problem that Mages face in their campaign to claim Jesus as their own is the Resurrection. One could argue that Jesus had a Warlock in his party during the last days who gave him a Soulstone, that allowed him to Rez, but I find fault in that, because I think that Jesus' Resurrection was of his own accord, and therefore couldn't have been brought about by someone else (unless it was the Holy Spirit who cast it on him as Ben points out). Anyway, that's the case for Mages.
Shaman - Shammies, on the other hand, do have the ability to resurrect themselves, and they have the ability to heal as well, which gives it already two advantages over the above mentioned Mages. Plus, A Shammie can resurrect others, which gives them a major point in that it can explain the resurrection of Lazarus. Also, they can wear both cloth and leather (as well as chain, but I don't think Jesus wore any chain mail), so that gets his outfit rounded out easily. However, to my knowledge, I don't know of any talent or spell that Shammies have that could reduce the threat level of the mobs and allow Jesus to walk away unharmed in the story presented above. But, Shammies do have some sort of elemental control, which would help in the case of Jesus rebuking the winds and the waves. The only problems I can forsee with Shammies is the use of totems for some of their spells. As much as I have scoured the Gospels over the years, I have not found any mention to Jesus using a totem when healing any of the many people throughout his ministry. Although, it must be said that the totems are used for Healing over Time spells, and it is true that most of Jesus' heals were instant, there are a few that require time (as in the case of the blind man who had to wash himself in the pool of Siloam). The other problem with Shammies would have to be the fact that Jesus was a Human (ok, ok, half God, half Man, but for all intents and purposes, his race was clearly Human in form), and the Shaman class is not available for Humans, but I think this to be a minor flaw in the argument, because Jesus can pick whatever class he wants.
Warlock - Now before you get all uppity on me for even mentioning that Jesus could have been a Lock, I advise that you remember that this is all written in humor, and if you can't handle it, please navigate to a safer website like www.family.org and have fun on your own. The case for Locks, in my opinion is a flimsy one anyway. The only thing that they have going for them is the Soulstone, which Jesus could have cast on himself, that and the fact that it is a cloth class just like Mages. Aside from this, there seems to be nothing else going for it, since it is not a healing class (at least not one that doesn't require afflicting pain to others in order to heal). If I am missing anything here, please make sure to let me know in the comments section below, because I think I'm going to have to end here.
Druid - I would have to say that Jesus would be a Resto Druid, due to all the Healing abilities mentioned earlier. Jesus would not use the shapeshifting abilities, because it would have been unnecessary to his goals. The only major hurdle for Druids is similar to that of Shammies and is therefore thrown out - the fact that Humans cannot pick this class. Sad to say, but I can't think of anything that would separate Druids from Shammies in this battle, and since Shammies also have the elemental control, I think it does give them the slight edge (even over the nature abilities of Druids, which could explain the withering of the fig tree, but I find that to be minor, since most classes could easily cause enough damage to the tree to cause it to wilt).
Paladin - He would definitely be a Holy specced Pally, but there is little here to support this class above the other healing classes (which brings a tear to my eye, as this is my home class). The one thing that can be said here is the Blessings that Pallies can bestow upon others. The Blessings of Wisdom, Light, and Salvation come to mind first off, for the obvious reasons. Sadly, I cannot think of any other reasons to support this class as Jesus'.
Priest - A Holy specced Priest on the other hand, brings us into one of the most famous of all Jesus' miracles - the ability to walk on water. A Priest-only spell, this is a huge argument for this class. This added to the Healing abilities (all mentioned in the Shammy paragraph), gives the Priest a big run for the top. Plus, the Prayers that can be given to party members and to the Priest himself gives it one more big push as it is mentioned multiple times throughout the Gospels of Jesus' love to pray. However, when we look back to the story that brought up this whole subject, I can't find a talent/spell that takes a Priest out of combat and allows them to walk unnoticed through mobs.... although they do have Divine Shield, this wouldn't allow them to go unnoticed.
Rogue - Definitely a Subtlety specced Rogue. Jesus has the ability to Shadowstep behind everyone mentally in all of his parables in order to get the jump on them so that they never really know where he is going to be next. Added to this the leather wearing, and the aforementioned Vanish ability gives Rogues a pretty strong run for Jesus.... However, the inability to recreate any of the healings without the use of bandages does bring a big detraction to the class.
Warrior - Aside from the Protection aspect of Wars, I can't really find much to give them a good run for Jesus. Am I missing anything?
Hunter - Same with Wars, I only find the affinity to nature an aspect that could bring any validity to a Hunter's run.
And there you have it. Am I missing anything for any of the classes? Seeing as how I've only really played a Pally, Rogue and Mage, I probably am missing a lot of talents or spells from each class, so feel free to add anything to the comments section and I can update as information comes in.
For those of you who have been waiting for a real blog to come in, sorry. Christmas was a good time spent with both Katie and my families and we got to go to Medieval Times, which was SPECTACULAR! Then, we came back home, and went back to work, and nothing happened until Burning Crusade came out, and since then I have been spending what time I can on the wonderful grind to lvl 70 (currently 2 bars from 66). Anyway, I thought about doing another few top ten lists of 06, but I haven't really decided yet. If you want to see those, just let me know and I'll get to work on it. Anyhoo, that's all I've got. Godspeed.

Copeland

Yeah, it's been awhile again, but I've been busy, what with the new PvP stuff on World of Warcraft and my Wii, it's tough to tear myself away. On thursday, I went out to see Copeland in Atlanta, and it was a good show... however as good as Copeland was, a band that we went downstairs to see really took the prize - Monty Are I, I'm looking at you. They probably had one of the most energetic/fun shows I've ever been to. On par with Showbread, and approaching Five Iron in coolness.

Aside from this, it has been work as usual, I went to see The Fountain and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny over the past two weeks and both were really good (for completely different reasons of course). Let's see.... I'm really reaching here, I can't think of much that has gone on. This week is the much anticipated Chuck and Noelle wedding! But, I can't really write about it since it hasn't even happened yet.

Anyhoo, I won't keep you here since I don't have anything to say, but I'll be sure to think something up this week so the next post isn't as pitiful.

Wiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

Yup, after 9 hours in line in front of walmart yesterday, I got my Nintendo Wii and Legend of Zelda! All I can say is, wow! This system is awesome. Even Katie really likes Wii Sports. I'm only about 3 hours into Zelda, but it's pretty dang awesome so far.

Aside from the Wii, nothing too new has been going on, I've just been working hard for the money (to play World of Warcraft), and now I'm ready for Tuesday to head up to the cabin to see mine and Katie's family and get some 4-player Wii action going!

I pre-ordered the new Switchfoot cd also, from what I've heard of it, it's definitely solid. Here is the first video (for Oh! Gravity)


Enjoy, and have a great thanksgiving! Godspeed!

New TV and getting ready for Wii

Well, today, Katie and I broke down and bought a new TV. I have been begging for a while for this, and finally all my whining has payed off with a 32" LCD HDTV, and now I am completely under the wife's control until this debt is paid. On the huge plus side, this means I can play the new Zelda in Widescreen at the highest resolution, and my Wii will be wonderful!!

In other news, I have been working at not just one Bruster's, but 3 now! I have been able to travel with my boss to the Bruster's in Newnan and once to Dunwoody. I have actually been spending a lot of my time at the one in Newnan, and I enjoy it, even if it is dirty for the main reason that it has no drive-thru. You have no idea how much I hate that beeping in my ear.

Also, the new Copeland hit stores last week, and if you liked the sound of the video I posted last time, this album is just for you, it has a really great soft feel to it. There is even some jazzy little intermissions in it that make it all the better. And for any of you who are willing, they are playing in ATL on Dec. 7th, and I'd love for you to come along with me.

In other news, the new Spider-Man 3 trailer will be playing with Casino Royale in a week. And for the best news of the past two weeks (just kidding Katie), I got my epic mount on WoW, so now I can ride in style. I have a picture of it saved on my computer, but I still haven't figured out how to post pictures on this stupid thing.

That's about all for now. Godspeed.

60!

Yes, the rumors are true, I have reached level 60 on World of Warcraft, no please, please... hold the applause. Anyhoo, the cabin last week was amazing, not only was it a great and relaxing weekend, but I absolutely love going up to North Georgia, it is so beautiful and the cabin is wonderfully comfortable. If I could have, I would have quit work right then and there and moved up to the cabin forever.
The one thing I am really waiting for now is November 19th, when I will get my Wii, no matter what. I may have missed the pre-order, but I will be in line at 8pm the 18th (if not earlier) to ensure my spot in gaming bliss. I've already pre-ordered Zelda, and it comes with Wii Sports, so I'll have 2 games at least to play, and I'm thinking of getting Monkey Ball as well, but I haven't decided yet, I need IGN to be able to review them before I make my final decision.
Oh, if you haven't been watching it, Heroes has been jumping fast on my list of favorite shows. It's already one of 4 shows that I watch weekly (and come to think of it, those are all I really watch). For the curious ones, those shows are LOST, Heroes, My Name is Earl, and The Office... two dramas and two comedies, helps me to keep in balance. I normally watch Survivor as well, but I've missed it for a couple of weeks and I'm starting to lose interest anyway.
Oh yeah, and since work is finally slowing down since it's cold again, I actually was able to spend some time thinking and actually writing a little bit more of my story (kind of, it will probably be changed completely from what I've written, but at least it's a starting point). This is pretty huge, considering I've been stuck on the same part of the story and haven't written anything in like 8 months.
Well, I'm running out of stuff to say, so I'll leave you with the new Copeland video to hold you over until Halloween when it drops.

Godspeed

Cabin Time!

Yes!!!! Finally, this week, I am taking some days off and since it is fall break for Katie we are going up to my parents freshly built cabin to start furnishing! I'm so excited about seeing this place, I can't even express.

Also, on monday, we are going to go see Cool Hand Luke (the band, not the movie) in Columbus, which should be a good show so, I'm pretty excited about that too (since I have to miss the Nintendo Fusion tour to help out mom and dad).

Anyhoo, thanks to Ben Ladd, I'm falling in love with Coheed and Cambria, not only because the music is really awesome, but because it's an entire sci-fi storyline within the songs (complete with comics that go along with each album). Basically, it's kind of like Brave Saint Saturn, only with a deeper storyline that includes three races, a guy who gets tricked into killing his family, and a whole lot more. I do a sucky job of explaining it, so if you are interested, look it up on wiki, or axe Ben Ladd.

Found out that Futurama seasons have all dropped to 20 bucks at Wal-Mart, I already have season 1, but now I can afford to get the others! (They also make great gifts).

Just bought the new Weird Al album...very good. Definitely a buy if you like laughing (and who doesn't - except for the Amish).

Wow, I really didn't have that much to say, but I really needed to update so I don't get slack again. Godspeed.

Hayao Miyazaki

I am completely taken by the films of Hayao Miyazaki. For those of you who don't know who this is, I suggest you pay close attention and pop a few of his movies into your Netflix queue. Each and every one of Miyazaki's films is intricately detailed scene by scene and has the best animation I've ever seen. Not only that, but each story is like a morality play, but not as heavy handed as a Disney film (although Disney does now own the rights for Studio Ghibli film distribution here in America) - instead, he lets each character develop and learn their own lesson throughout the film in a much more subtle way (sometimes you won't understand until the very end of the movie). Also, I love these films because I find a lot of Christian symbolism within them (there is also a lot fo really cool Japanese symbolism as well - especially in the Oscar winning Spirited Away *plug, plug*). Anyway, I'm going to tell you about my 3 favorite Miyazaki films, and you are going to be compelled to watch and fall in love just as I have.

First up is My Neighbor Totoro, which is also Katie's favorite. It is the film that is most aimed at kids out of all of them, and yet it is brilliant. The movie centers on two sisters and their dad, who have just moved into a new home in the country while their mother is sick in the hospital. The girls, after exploring the house wind up playing and going into the forest where they meet the mischevious spirit of the forest - Totoro. Totoro is a huge, cute, fluffy bear-like thing who... well, I can't say all that he does, but suffice to say, the girls' encounters with Totoro are magical. My absolute favorite scene (probably out of all Miyazaki's films) is one where Totoro, his 2 little Totoro buddies, and the girls are dancing around a little garden and it grows into a forest. The symbolism of the creation story as the trinity of Totoros lead their human friends in the dance of life as the new garden springs up around them is beautiful. It is truly a wonderful moment and it nearly brings tears to my eyes as I think about it. Anyway, this is a film to get and watch with the family, the little ones will love Totoro (and the cat bus).

Next, we have my first experience with Miyazaki - Princess Mononoke. Definitely one of the most action-packed and probably the most adult of the films, Mononoke is visually stunning. The forest scenes are some of the most jaw-dropping sequences ever. Basically this is a story of a young man, who, after getting infected by a demon winds up in a huge war between people and animals who need the forest and those who want it destroyed. Anyway, the reason I picked this movie in my top 3 is because it has some of the coolest action sequences, and one of the best ending scenes ever. Plus even the dubbed version has great voice acting, which is a rarity in the move from Japan to America (don't even get me started on the Cartoon Network version of Naruto - Believe it!). Come to think of it, all of Miyazaki's films have been treated with care and on the whole have both great dubs and subs.

Finally, my number one pick is Castle in the Sky. You don't have to be a genius to figure out what this movie is gonna be about, but it is a beautiful and moving film about young love, war, and the respect of history and nature (a running theme in all of Miyazaki's films). What makes this film stand above the rest is the castle. When you see the castle and all of the sequences that take place there, you'll know what I mean. Plus, the plot is really cool - about a forgotten kingdom with an awesome power that people want to use for their gain. AND, the opening scene has pirates.... beat that.

I hope I have picqued your interest in these films, and I hope you check them out soon. If you find that you really like them, I'll let you borrow my Trigun series - 27 episode Anime TV series that is funny, thought-provoking, touching, and chock full of symbolism, just like Miyazaki's works. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoyed this little tangent, I'm stuck on duty this weekend, so I'd better log in to WoW and try to get a level or two. Godspeed.

What Happened

For those of you who have been waiting for this post, I'm sorry. While doing research for my blog, I realized that I had no need to write it. People have been denouncing Mr. Osteen for quite some time. Here, let me provide the curious with some links:

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/outing-joel-osteen-a-challenge-to-the-evangelical-blogosphere
http://www.cultlink.com/ar/osteen.htm
http://www.mbcpathway.com/_home/article-1999938212.htm
http://www.forgottenword.org/osteen.html

What can I say that hasn't already been said? I feel that I don't need to waste your time retreading all the information that you can easily grasp by typing "joel osteen" into google and reading the results. So, I'll just get back to what's been going on with me.

For those who don't know yet, Jars of Clay's new album - Good Monsters has hit stores. You should know that I've always been a huge Jars fan, and I think that they can do no wrong. This album is no exception, returning to the sounds of If I left the Zoo and The Eleventh Hour, Good Monsters has that rock feel, but still keeps the sound and style of Jars, even keeping a couple of bluegrassy songs within the album to keep it similar enough to the two most recent albums. All in all, I say you should pick up this album, (if you are a cheapskate, you can pick it up on www.allofmp3.com for under 3 bucks - legally). Also, you can go to www.freederekwebb.com and pick up his newest album for the low low price of free.

I don't have anything else for now, but now that I've cleared out this blog from the sidetrack, I should be back fairly soon with some real stuff for you. I've gotta go run and play Smash Bros with the guys. Godspeed.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Holy cow, since the last post, Dan and G have been to visit, we went to Six Flags, saw Descent, played some video games, got Dan addicted to World of Warcraft, and so on. Then, as soon as they left this week at work has been so busy, and I haven't had too much energy to think about this blog... until today. Today, I've decided that I'm going to call out Joel Osteen, right here on my blog. I am currently in the stages of working on exactly what I'm going to say, but really I'm going to need your help. When I actually get the post up (hopefully within the week) I need you guys to do your best to get this out, because it needs to get to his eyes. I want him to read it and respond to me, I want him to know how badly I think he is butchering the Gospel of Jesus.

Here is an example of why I think he needs some accountability.

The problem I have with this in particular is that the Scripture should be the focus of the message, not just something you tack on to the end. Anyway, I just thought you guys should know what was coming, so you can get the word out... Joel, I'm coming for you.

Godspeed.

My Top Ten Books of all time (be warned this will be very long)

Here it is, the blog all three of you have been waiting for (I know that only Katie, Chris and mom read this anymore), my top ten books of all time. I've actually had to split this into my top ten books and later on, I'll post my top Inspirational (or Christian-ish) books - be forewarned that Joel Osteen appears at the top of all of my lists now! Anyhoo, enough rambling, let's get this started:

10) Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Anyone who says that Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is the best work of Christian Apologetics has clearly not read Chesterton's Orthodoxy. In my opinion, this book surpasses MC by leaps and bounds, with his uncanny wit, wonderful logic, and some of the best illustrations (you can change the color of the world to your favorite color even if you only paint a single blade of grass at a time, but you can never change it if you keep changing your favorite color - well, he puts it a lot more eloquently, but I think you get the point). Also, Chesterton influenced many authors including being an inspiration for both Lewis and Tolkien (among other on this list later on) and the only reason this book is not higher on this list is beause I put it so high on my other list (as you will see soon enough)... wait, why should I have ot make excuses to you, it's my list! This book is incredible, and is the only non-fiction book in my list, which should be saying a lot. That, added to being the oldest book on my list gives it a solid 10 (which is really saying that I wanted it higher, but needed space for other books).

9) Castle Roogna (Xanth series) by Piers Anthony
My first real love of fantasy came from this book, and consequently the entire Xanth series. A little background on Xanth - Xanth is a fantasy realm that looks (curiously enough) just like Florida, and can be accessed by many ways from this world, which is referred to as Mundania in Xanth. Within Xanth, every person is born with a magical talent ranging from the boring (making colored spot appear) to the truly terrific (impervious to magic attacks). The hero of this particular novel is Dor, the heir to the throne, due to his useful talent - talking to inanimate objects. In order to prepare him for his role as king, Dor is sent on an adventure in the past, wherein he befriends a spider, learns how his current nanny became a ghost, and the origin of the zombie king, which truly began my love for the whole punny world of Xanth, which would later grow into a love for the satire of Discworld, but we'll talk about that later. Anyway, this book is not only my first Xanth, but also my favorite (followed closely by Night Mare). I should probably explain now that this is my first entry that is a series, but a lot of the books I love are series, so I will only really discuss my favorite of each series, but let it be known that the rank acutally encompasses the entire series. So Xanth, my gateway to fantasy sits here at number 9, and I encourage you to grab a copy of one of the earlier books (they're the best) and enjoy.

8) Heir to the Empire trilogy (Star Wars series) by Timothy Zahn
What?! You mean the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie didn't end with Return of the Jedi?! Well, yeah they did, at least to the purist, but the Star Wars books have made a huge dent in my wallet, shelf space, and time, and not just because it's Star Wars (although that's a huge contributing factor), no these are good books - yes some are far better than others, but they are written by fans who care about the characters and allow them to grow. I mean, how else would you learn about Han and Leia's wedding, their three kids, or even the death of Chewbacca? Only through these books (which by the way, George Lucas endorses each one before it can be published - or so they say), anyway, this trilogy is heads and shoulders above the rest, introducing the awesome baddie Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Dark Jedi Mara Jade (who later marries Luke), aside from these there is a clone of Luke (cleverly named Luuke), another huge death machine, and great space and lightsaber battles. This trilogy is what really jumpstarted the Star Wars novels and (in my opinion) helped to bring in enough fans for Lucas to make his new trilogy of films, which was made all worth it with the Clone Wars cartoon series and the wonderful Episode 3, and if that isn't reason enough to pick up these books, then you don't need to be reading anyway.

7) Mossflower (Redwall series) by Brian Jacques (pronounced Jakes)
The second installment of the beloved Redwall series (beloved by me because I've been reading them since I was about 8 years old) is my personal favorite because it gives the story of Martin the warrior and his entrance into Mossflower country, the forging of his legendary blade and the beginnings of Redwall Abbey. For those who don't know about Redwall, it is a series of books centered around the abbey which is inhabited by a number of woodland creatures (moles, mice, squirrels, etc. - a la Watership Down), basically each book is an episode of the life of the abbey and the difficulties it faces over the years. As I mentioned above, this particular novel is my favorite because it gives so much of the backstory for future novels. It also has my favorite villain of the series (you can see a trend between this and the previous entry - villains really make the story) - Tsarmina Greeneyes the wildcat. Add to her Gonff the prince of mousethieves and Dinny, the greatest mole ever makes this the top of my Redwall series... "Salamandastron look out here we come!"

6) Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
My favorite graphic novel of all time. This is one book that everyone should be required to read at some point in their schooling, if not life. It's a great super hero-ish drama, that turns into a great mystery/parable/pirate substory/all around great tale. Dave Gibbons' art is perfect for the book, and since it is a graphic novel, that counts for quite a lot. Just as in the other entries, the "villain" (if that's what you want to call him) is one of the best of all time, although the name can't be revealed here, let's just say that it makes for a spectacular ending. The protagonist, Rorschach (some would call him hero - but I'll let you decide when you read) is utterly insane, and yet deeply committed to his cause, so much so that he abandons his entire life to the pursuit and capture (and at times, killing) of criminals. There is so much to say about this novel, but not until you've read it, so pick it up and drop me a line when you finish.

5) Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
One of the funniest books I've ever read, and definitely the funniest book about the Apocalypse. I mean, what other book has an order of chattering satanic nuns, an angel and demon who are best buddies, an Antichrist who just wants to play with his dog and friends, and four bikers who desperately want to join the Four Horsmen (or Riders) of the Apocalypse on their final ride? These are just a few of the wonderful characters and situations in this book, which is so good that when I first began to read it, I knew that it would become one of my favorites. It also doesn't hurt that it was dedicated to G.K. Chesterton because "he knew what was going on." The two authors are among my favorites of all time, and although Neil Gaiman's Sandman series didn't quite make this list, be assured that you will be seeing Terry Pratchett soon enough. So, for those who love the comedy of Douglas Adams and also love the end-times drama of Left Behind (oh man, I almost wrote that whole sentence with a straight face), this is definitely one for you.

NOTE: The next four entries fluctuate places at times, but I think that these are their overall places.

4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire... no wait, the Half Blood Prince... no the Prisoner of Azkaban... naw, the entire series by J.K. Rowling
I have to choose this series because it is what first encouraged me (and millions of others) to begin dabbling in the occult and offering human sacrifices to my lord Satan... oh wait, that's for another post. Really, what makes this series so great is the entire wizarding world. Rowling does such a great job combining the wizarding world, giving it just enough similarities, and yet creating such fantastical differenes that make these such fun reads. I mean, if the number of fans is any indication to how good a book is (I mean look at Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen... wait, bad example ummmm look at the Left Behin..... nevermind, forget this entire example). Okay, instead of thinking of the number of books sold (which is astounding, mind you) let's just look at the writing - Harry has believably matured from a naive 11 year old boy to a 16 year old cynical, moody, teenager (complete with hormones) and not only that, but Rowling is even willing to kill off beloved characters (including more dying in the upcoming final installment) for the sake of the story (some authors tend to let characters live too long past their purpose and they go on without any sort of growth or meaning to the book), anyway enough has been said about HP by me and thousands of others so if you haven't read them yet, it's your own dang fault.

3) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit included)
More than likely, the only book that would have been published on this list if it wasn't for LOTR is Orthodoxy. Tolkien's masterpiece made sci-fi/fantasy sections in bookstores possible (or at least in the size they are now). As many have noted, and I am one to highly agree, Tolkien is the author of the 20th Century, the amount of information that he came up with to create not just these books, but an entire world full of history, cultures, and even languages. Anyone who has read (or even tried to read - it took me about 5 times to get all the way through) The Silmarillion knows exactly how much Tolkien has put into these books. This is also the only series that I can actually count as one book, because that is indeed how it was meant to be published and read. I'm not going to get into the story because unless you are living in a cave reading this with Wi-Fi (and even then), you should know the story, whether the Peter Jackson version, the Bakshi/Rankin-Bass versions, or the one and only best version, these books. Do yourself a favor and read or re-read 'em, period.

2) Night Watch (Discworld series) by Terry Pratchett
Two words: Sam Vimes. If that doesn't strike either fear or awe in you, you are missing out on quite possible my favorite fictional character of all time. He is the Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, and is a copper through and through, he lives to enfoce the law of A-M up to even having to arrest the Patrician (like the President). There is no way I can explain Discworld in the amount of space that you would read (and in face, I'm extremely proud of you for making it this far), so therefore let me just say that the Discworld series is deliciously satirical and leaves you grinning as you turn every page. Night Watch is so spectaculare for three main reasons (aside from being completely focused on Sam Vimes - who truly makes any page he enters): time paradoxes, a huge battle, and one of the most touching endings in the entire series, which nearly had me in tears. I don't know how to put into word how truly great this story and series are, but I can tell you that I'm completely addicted to Pratchett's books (I'm reading Soul Music right now, in fact). So, if you like humor, or fantasy (really, it helps if you like both), Discworld takes the cake.

(drumroll)

1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (a trilogy in five parts) by Douglas Adams
Where Pratchett took satire and brought it to fantasy, Douglas Adams took it to science fiction and made it side-splittingly hilarious. Originally, it came out as a BBC radio series in the late '70s (and if you can find them to listen to, I highly encourage that you do), Adams later released the radio show as a book, and then two books, and on until book five (there might have been more had he not passed away). Anyway, each incarnation of the Guide story (radio, books, TV, and movie) has the same characters and beginning storyline, but they each branch out in wacky ways, and my favorite remains the books (with the radio drama in a close second). I'm trying to decide how best to describe the story (which begins with the destruction of Earth), but I realized that only those who truly knew where their towel is, and know what 42 truly means, would understand. The only advice I can really give is the same as all my other entries - READ IT!! If you read thsi book and decide that you don't like it, we can't be friends anymore, that's just the way I roll, sorry. So, read it and enjoy.

Well, for those of you who just skipped all the explanations and got here - shame on you, and for those of you who read every word - I love you. Before I go, I must give a shout out to my Honorable Mentions which are: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (great movie, incredible book), the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman (wonderful writing, beautiful art), and the Ultimate Spider-Man series by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley (a great re-envisioning of the Spider-Man story for more modern times). There, I'm done, it's taken me three days to write this whole thing, so I hope you like it. My top Christian books will be up at a later date (although I don't know if it will be a full 10 like this one). Godspeed.

I hate thinking up titles

I'm working on my list of top ten books of all time, so I should have it up within a week or two (in order to make katie happy). This past week was nice, I got to go see Talladega Nights with the guys from my bible study (we are now forming an Alumni bible study), anyway, the movie was hilarious. I love Will Ferrell. This upcoming week, I've got my entire family coming on friday/saturday and Dan, G, Laura, and one of Laura's friends are going with me and Katie to Six Flags next sunday (so my next post might be a bit late).
As an answer to the other suggestion by Katie, what would I do with 10 million dollars that I had to spend in two years? I'd build a very nice house, complete with a theater and gaming room within and then I'd get a new car (most probably a Jetta), and put some money in the stock market, so that I could retire and not have to work. Of course I would make a contribution to my church and to a charity or two (or three or four). Basically, I can't really imagine what I would do with so much money. What would you do with it?
Anyway, sorry this isn't a long post, but I've gotta run for my weekly D&D meeting, perhaps I'll be posting that book post soon. Godspeed.

Well, I got nothing from that last post

Yeah, I guess I waited a bit long since checking my blog and I think that last post might have been a bit late, but I enjoyed writing it anyway. This past week has been largely uneventful, Katie and I went out with our friends Andrew and Amber to celebrate all the great things that happened in the past month or so (they got engaged and got great jobs, and Katie is starting up her teaching on Tuesday). It was really fun seeing them, and I was able to pick up some great books from Barnes and Noble in the bargain books for a steal (always check out those tables when you get there, its way worth it).
Showbread's album dropped and although I haven't gotten my copy in (even though I preordered it), I have listened to it a bunch of times online already and I must say that it is an amazing album.
I haven't thought of any topics to write about, so I need some help. Drop me a line, give me something to write about, it can be something for me to complain about (again) or something for me to rave about, its up to you.
Anyhoo, I just completed an entire year working at Bruster's! And that's as good a note as I can end on for now. Godspeed.

Correction

Thank you Christopher Meinsler... I am a moron. When I said Jesus taught two centuries ago, I meant two millenia (or twenty centuries if you prefer). Either way, thanks Chris, and everyone else just pretend like you never noticed the mistake.

Response to a comment

I don't know how long ago this comment was posted, or by whom, but I really want to respond to it... if it was you, please feel free to email me to continue the discussion (nrbaughman@gmail.com) the comment is in reference to my top 10 albums of last year and here it is in full:

Anonymous said...

I totally disagree with some of the choices on your list. The main one would have to be Switchfoot. They are such a bunch of sell outs. They say that "we are meant to live for so much more" but on that album they sold out. They went on Non-christian tours, Left the name of "God" and "Jesus" out of many of their songs, and put in you and he, refering to God in the 3rd person. Not only did they play at non-christian concerts, but they used the extra money for what? Better instruments, better effects on music videos and more stuff. That stuff is the same stuff Christ says will rot away. They need to use their money on the eternal, THE CHURCH. Helping their local chuch or giving more to help THE CHURCH would be a better use of their money. I'm not saying I am always following God, but when you are in a Well-Known band for Christ you are put on a ladder where everyone sees you. And by not proclaiming your faith directly you dirty the name of Christ.

First of all, what is a Non-Christian tour? Tons of Christian bands go/have been on tours with non-Christian bands - MxPx, Showbread, Five Iron Frenzy, Mae, Number One Gun... Hell, Underoath even headlined the Vans Warped tour this year! Does that make them any less Christian because they are broadening their fan base and are willing to play shows outside of a church or a youth group's building? I sure hope not.
Second, what exactly is a sell-out? Is it because they moved to a larger label that was able to get them better shows in order to accompany their growing popularity, and allow their cds to be sold in more places giving them a much easier accesibility to those who are craving their message.
Third, YES, Switchfoot still holds a message. I don't know where you got that they left out "God" or "Jesus" from their songs, but none of the Switchfoot albums (even when they were on a Christian label) explicitly mention God or Jesus. Does that make them less Christian? No, because they are more than willing to put up their faith and all the struggles that accompany it within their lyrics. Just because they don't say the name of God doesn't mean that they aren't talking about God. For instance, one of the songs I mentioned in that old blog, "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine," says within its title and throughout the song that everything we do, whether wrong or right continues to prove that there is a God behind it all, hence the Shadow proves the Sunshine. Also, there are a bunch of praise choruses that say he or you instead of mentioning the name of God specifically, and I hope that those are still Christian songs.
Finally, you don't get mad at a Christian home-builder for buying better equipment for building homes, do you? Then why would you be upset because they are buying better instruments in order to improve the quality of their shows?! It makes no sense. Not only that, but Switchfoot has put up a bunch of money starting up their own charity type thing called lowercasepeople, which you can check out on lowercasepeople.com, wherein the entirety of the cause is for social justice, just like some guy was all about two centuries ago... I think his name was... ummmm Jesus?

I need to wrap up because I have company coming, but if anyone thinks my points are wrong or they want to add anything, the comments are now open. So please, if you really think Switchfoot is not Christian, just because they are on a larger label, I'd hate to say it, but I think you are wrong.
Godspeed.

Two days till the Age of Reptiles

This past week has been, on the whole, pretty uneventful. Katie and I went to a wedding shower yesterday, and we did our normal babysitting on wednesday, but aside from that, nothing huge happened.
At church today, after listening to Alvin's sermon, I decided that its time for someone to make a movie/book about the David and Bethsheba story from Uriah's point of view, where his wife was taken (pretty much against her will) and then he was murdered just because of David's mistake. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, it is in 2 Samuel chapter 11 in the Bible and it makes for a sad (or as Alvin said "dark") part of David's life in which he seems to have no redeeming qualities. In fact, if you only read this part of David's story, you would find him to be a pretty evil king.
Aside from this little idea, the only thing I've been thinking about is that since I've been watching a bunch of Naruto lately (an anime series), I just wish I had more time in the day so that I could catch up on episodes.
As the title of this blog suggests, also, this tuesday is the release of the second Showbread album "The Age of Reptiles," and every song I've heard from it has been amazing. I've already preordered my album (autographed) and I can't wait for it to come in. For those of you who need a taste, just pop over to www.purevolume.com/showbread.
I think that's all I've got to say for now. Until next week.
Godspeed

Starting Again

Well, It has been a long while since I've written anything of meaning, and I feel that I owe it to ya'll to come back and get back to this site instead of leaving it by the wayside. Anyhoo, this summer has pretty much blown by. I've been working all the time, we moved into a new apartment (twice, but still on campus). I've seen some great movies - Pirates 2, Clerks 2, Nacho Libre, Superman. I've been listening to some great music - Underoath, Sufjan, Family Force 5, Bedlight for Blueeyes. And, I've even been on vacation to Wisconsin to visit all of Katie's extended family. However, none of these reasons are why I haven't been on to update my blog... let me tell you the one and only reason that I don't update (and rarely even spend time online anymore) - World of Warcraft.

I'm gonna sound like a complete nerd, but I'm completely into this MMORPG, it's amazing fun, and I can play with friends in the middle of the night without ever having to leave my computer room. The only downside is that it does eat up time. Since I have to pay for this game every month, I feel that I must play as much as I can to make up for what I spend.

Anyway, I'm gonna do my best to at least start updating this thing bi-weekly, and if I don't I'll make up a good excuse why not, but for now this is what you get, and I'm trying not to say too much about the above said music and movies in case I have no idea for a topic on a later post. Until then.

Godspeed,
Nate