Religion Friday: Having a Shadow

Today at work, I had a job shadow from a local high school. To be honest, I've been dreading it all week. I didn't really know how it was going to go and I wasn't sure what exactly we would do at work all day to keep him interested and busy, but everything went smoothly and I think he had a good time.

This guy who came to work with me is getting ready to go to college in a year, and he's pretty sure of what he wants to do with his life. It made me a bit jealous.

I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I was his age, but really I was just fooling myself and was just going with what I thought would be cool (a youth pastor). It turned out that I'm not exactly all that fond of teens... particularly those in a typical youth group. It's just not my cup of tea. So once I got past that, I realized I had no plan.

I've now been out of college for nearly 4 years and am getting ready to go to seminary. The current plan is to get a degree to teach on the collegiate level, but even now I'm not sure what is right. I know that there is somewhere that God is intending for me to end up. I also know that right now it feels right to be going back to school. So how come I don't feel all that excited.

(Stupid analogy time): Maybe it's because having a job shadow was really just like seeing a shadow of my former self. Maybe it was seeing his enthusiasm and how much I've lost that affected me.

I ride a lot of waves of enthusiasm. One minute I've got a great idea for a book or documentary and the next I'm back to work and trying to figure out where to go. Perhaps this moving forward into school will restore something and help me to find some sort of purpose (well purpose isn't quite the word, but close enough).

Gaming Thursday: Fallout 3

There are some games that I can just play, without any clear goal in mind when I sit down. Those games are traditionally made by Bethesda (the hours I have put into Morrowind and Oblivion are second only to World of Warcraft). So when they put together Fallout 3, I knew I would have to play it, even though I have yet to play the first two games in the series.

Wandering around post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. is a wonderful experience. The characters that I've met and the mutants that I've killed have combined for a great ride thus far, and I'm really barely into the game.

The combat is fairly straightforward, you can play it completely as a first person shooter if you really want, but you will likely get incredibly frustrated with how often your gun misses in the beginning. For that, you have the VATS system on your arm. This allows you to focus your weapon on various parts of the enemy and let the computer targeting take over for a few shots while you watch your character's handiwork. I must say that it is satisfying every time I get a critical head shot and the bad guy's head explodes and I get to watch his eyeballs fly through the air.

Since I haven't been following the plot line too much, I can't say much about it, but I care about it much more than I did in either Oblivion or Morrowind. That, plus all of the side missions are really fun (and funny), so I don't ever feel like it's necessary for me to go back to the main quest until I really feel like it. I also really like the dialogue options. For the most part, I'm a straightforward good guy, but when I have the option to say something incredibly snarky and hilarious, I can't resist. For this, the writing in the game is great, I've laughed out loud a number of times at people's comments and things that I've seen and it really helps for getting immersed into the world.

The only problem with Fallout 3 is that it is distracting me from a number of games that need to be completed (Dragon Quest 8 and Okami in particular), but it's a good distraction, and I'm sure I'll wind up sinking way too many hours into it... especially now that I just found a really cool handheld chainsaw thingy!

World News Wednesday

I know this might be dangerous, but I think it's pretty funny too.

I really don't have anything to say about this aside from: I love zombies.

Bookish Tuesday: Never Make Promises

So, I'm learning that making promises about reading certain books within a set amount of time never really works out for me. I've been intending to have Cat's Cradle read for the past two Tuesdays of this blog and yet I've not yet cracked the book open. It's not because I don't want to read the book, but because I've kind of gotten a bit burned out by marathon reading the four Twilight books in a matter of 2 weeks.

Instead, I've been reading the text of Chrono Trigger on my DS as I play it every night and slowly making my way through Out of the Silent Planet for my book club during the day.

I guess something in me just has to rebel against my statements. If I say that I want to only play Dragon Quest 8 before I move on to another game, the cat will pull the plug on the PS2 after 30 minutes between saves so that I haven't picked the game up in a week. If I say that I want to move through Cat's Cradle by the end of February, I'll wind up finding myself distracted until the book disappears completely and I never read it.

With all this said... there is my excuse for why today's Bookish Tuesday is not about Cat's Cradle and is actually about nothing at all, and just wasted approximately two minutes of your life (depending on your reading speed).

Movie Monday: Defiance

Daniel Craig is cool. He was a perfect pick for Bond, he made Casino Royale awesome and Quantum of Solace watchable. But the question remains: can he play a Russian Jew in the midst of the Holocaust, living out in the forest?

The answer is simply, yes. With the help of Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), anything's possible though. The movie is more of a character drama than a war movie, surrounding the story of the lives of the Jews who have escaped to the forest and fell in with Craig and his Bielski family, who were basically bad-ass Jewish Russians.

The movie really made me want to read the book that it was based upon (which in turn is based upon a true story), in order to find out how much of it was true. I can say first off, that them speaking English in bad Russian accents was likely not true, but the rest of the story seemed just implausible enough to be based on a real story.

Aside from the reality of the story, it played out interestingly enough to keep my attention, although at times, I admit I struggled. The problem was that Matt and I had recently been talking about My Side of the Mountain, and I couldn't help but keep thinking that this movie was just that book with some Nazis in the background.

All joking aside, the movie was very well written, with plenty of food for thought on the ethics of survival and community. I only wish that it had been developed as a miniseries or something, in order to give more time to flesh out the camp aside from the few that we were introduced to. But then again, it was more a story about the Bielski family than the camp as a whole - and for that, the movie did a great job.

Gaming Thursday: Chrono Trigger

It's no secret that I love Japanese RPGs., particularly those released in the 16 -bit era Earthbound (as I've said probably too many times) is my favorite game of all time and Final Fantasy 6 is a very close second. However, one RPG from that time that many tout as their favorite is one that I barely remembered - Chrono Trigger. I know that my brother and I played it through when it originally came out, but because I think we also played FF6 at around the same time, I think it got pushed out of the way in my mind. So when the Nintendo DS release was announced last year and I picked it up after Thanksgiving, I was ready to give it another shot.

The thing is, I agree completely with everyone who loves it. The battle system works great, the character design is beautiful, the music is phenomenal, and the concept is cool... so why don't I love it? I've been trying to figure it out for a while now, and I think I came to an explanation when talking with a friend yesterday.

It has to do with the story and the main character - Crono. He's a cool character and the story is interesting, but for some reason I find myself not really caring about where it is going or how it affects the people. Part of this is because of Crono. He's one of those main characters who never says a word or really reacts to the situations going on around him and relies on the secondary characters to progress the plot with their words and actions. Now Earthbound does the exact same thing, so I don't think that is the whole reason (either that or my love for Earthbound is completely irrational).

The story isn't bad either, but it just doesn't grip me in the same way that FF6 did, with all its Star Wars-y goodness. But just the way they combine in Chrono Trigger leaves me a bit unsatisfied. With all this said, the game is still one of the best Japanese RPGs I've ever played and I would easily recommend it to anyone who needs a good DS game to suck up some time on a road trip, but if this actually comes true, CT will have some serious competition on the RPG front... and by serious competition, I mean it stands no chance in my mind.

World News Wednesday: The White House

We've got a new family in the White House, and reading this article made me curious.

Well, maybe curious isn't the right word. Daydream is better methinks. What if you had gotten to grow up in the White House? Spending your free time looking for those hidden passages and whenever you get tired, heading on back to the movie theater to watch High School Musical 3... I mean a super-awesome guy movie. That would be the coolest childhood, matched only by a castle or palace in Europe with similar passages hidden throughout.

Now, I have to dedicate my life to becoming the President of the United States so that I can explore in the middle of the night when everyone else has gone to sleep. I mean, it's not like it would be a stressful job or anything, right?

Bookish Tuesday: Y: The Last Man

I know, I was planning to do Cat's Cradle this week, but I spent so much time finishing up Breaking Dawn, and I had the opportunity this weekend to also finish the Y: The Last Man comic series when I went to my brother's house.

I've been a big fan of the story throughout the time I've been reading the series, and I was excited to see how Brian K. Vaughn was able to wrap it all together. For those who might not have heard of this comic, it tells the story of Yorick, who is the only surviving male human after a plague somehow wipes out every male in the world aside from Yorick and his monkey, Ampersand. The story follows Yorick as he travels across the world in an attempt to catch back up with his girlfriend/fiancee, who was in Australia at the time the plague hit.

I was completely along for the ride until the final two collections. Not that they were bad, but I just didn't think that the end lived up to the story that led to it. For starters, the one main explanation of the plague seemed way too farfetched for the realistic tone that the book had been setting. It still makes sense and isn't nearly as bad as the explanation for the movie The Happening, but I kind of wish that they had left it unexplained. The other issues I had were minor and relate largely to spoilers, but suffice to say, while I was glad to have reached the end of the story's journey, I wish the ending had come about differently.

Another thing that really has nothing to do with the story, but more with comics in general is the amount of filler in this series. I have to say that I love comic series that have a clearcut beginning and ending with every issue in between holding a piece to the story (like Watchmen or Preacher) and when Y is focusing on the story, it is definitely one of the best written comics I've read recently. However, when they move away from the main story to tell something on the side, I get bored and antsy. I prefer to move the plot forward, side stories are awesome for off-shoot books, but I just don't like them getting in the way of me moving the story forward.

Oh, and since Brian K. Vaughn wrote this series, I have to mention... LOST season 5 starts tomorrow night! Woohoo!

Movie/TV Monday: Around the World in 80 Days

No, not the Jackie Chan movie, or even the Oscar winning 1956 version, but instead a British series from 1989 starring Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) in his attempt to recreate Phileas Fogg's journey around the world without the use of air travel.

While I stuck this on my Netflix instant watch queue on a complete whim, it turned out to be a truly good series. Palin is funny when he needs to be and completely serious the rest of the journey, giving you a very unique look at travelling around the world. Much of his time is spent on different cargo ships (since there just aren't that many passenger boats anymore), and he meets some of the most interesting people during the travels.

Matt and I have already planned to start watching his next series Pole to Pole this week, and I hope that it's as well put together as this series was. I enjoy travel shows for the simple fact that I (like most people) wish that I could have a camera follow me on my journeys throughout different cultures and provide my own voice to the opinions of how beautiful this is or how good that tastes.

Too bad that will never happen, but at least by watching shows like this, I can get a taste of the rest of the world so that when I come into a massive amount of money I can actually go out and experience it.

Religion Friday: Frustration

Roger got me addicted to this today.

What was an exercise in incredible frustration (my high score now is 450) is now also one of my all-time favorite flash games. It's a lot like Snood and Bubble Bobble, only with the added annoyances of spinning and extra bubbles.

What does this have to do with religion though? Well for me, religion is an incredibly frustrating thing. I can never get it just right, and any time I think I'm coming close to figuring it out, it spins on its head and I wind up looking at a completely different angle from what I was aiming at with 12 new targets appearing in place.

Yeah, it's kind of a silly example, but that's how I have been looking at this thing called faith recently. Maye at some point I'll be able to wrap my head around the game (for lack of a better term) in its entirety, but until then I think I'm fine playing it and just getting really mad when things turn on me.

Gaming Thursday: Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is a beautiful game. The colors and art style are great to see, and everything moves smoothly from place to place. It's also a satisfying game, when you string together a good wall run to a pillar to swinging on a pole all the way to the next ledge, it feels good. It also feels good that you can't die at any point in the game. Yes, this makes it easier than pie, but I like only having to move back a few jumps after Elika saves me rather than retrying an entire level (although, I think I still like the Sand mechanic of the previous games slightly better).

So with all this, you ask, why did you not finish the game? I'll tell you... pure and simple annoyance. Throughout the game, as you are renewing the land, you are collecting light seeds to restore power and be able to move to more places and get deeper into the world. This all works fine in the beginning when you are able to grab plenty of light seeds while you are going along to keep opening up the powers, but when it came to the point where I was 100 light seeds short of opening the next place and had already been through my unlocked areas, I didn't feel like going back.

I have nothing against the game itself, I still really liked it, but I stubbornly refuse to have to waste time going back through all of my completed areas to seek out one little jump that I missed containing a light seed or two, before climbing back up the same ledge to jump another direction and grab another seed.

Add to that the fact that the entire game (particularly the battles) plays like a glorified quicktime event (press x button at y time), that I never got to feel like I was the one doing everything, it was so automatic. Plus, battles are a frustrating combination of hitting block at just the right second in order to get a three hit combo off before the bad guy has his block back up and you are forced to wait for another opportunity.

I can't say that I don't like the game, because I really do, but I feel that there is so much wasted potential. I wish it had the same art style, but had taken the mechanics from Sands of Time and just incorporated that into the game. That, plus taking out the annoying searching for light seeds.

World News Wednesday: The Price of Virginity

Okay, the video is pretty stupid (particularly the scenery that they show during the talking), but the subject is quite interesting.

So, is this girl evil and wrong or just creative? I've known people who got upset because a guy I knew was thinking about selling his arm space to advertisers (as in tattooing), but I just thought he was doing something different. As such, isn't this girl doing the same? If she has no problem with selling her virginity, why would anyone condemn her? Yeah, it may not go with my particular set of morals, but I can't exactly press my beliefs on anyone else.

Basically, the whole point I'm trying to make is... good for you, girly. You are going to make $3 million for about 20 minutes of work, and I'm completely jealous.

Bookish Tuesday: More Vampires

Because I loved being a teenage girl so much, I have already finished book 3 of the Twilight series and am currently cruising through the final book: Breaking Dawn. What has made me such a glutton for punishment? I dislike a vast number of the main characters and find them so stupid that I've almost punched the book in the face in the hopes that Jacob would feel it. However, I have been told by a reliable source that I will actually like Bella by the end of the series.

I don't know why I believe this, but hope is strong in these dark times... it's even how our new president-elect won.

Without rehashing too much of last week, I will admit that when the books start to get into the history of vampires and werewolves I really like it, but when I get sucked back to Bella in the present after these stories, my eyes roll back into my head and I struggle not to pass out from the raw teenage emotion that exudes from the page. Add this to the fact that I have now read the phrase "hard as granite" or "marble body" (and yes you can say "that's what she said") so many freaking times, that I need to buy Stephenie Meyer a damn thesaurus.

So, after I finish this final book, I've already planned Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle as my follow-up, in hopes of stimulating my remaining brain cells into a working machine to keep me alive for another 60 years or so.

Movie Monday: TRON

I knew deep down that at some point in my life I had seen TRON before, but since my most recent memory of the movie stems from my playthrough of Kingdom Hearts last year, I didn't know what all I was expecting.

What I do know is that the story may be a little weak, especially with how much is widely known about computers in current times, but the effects are still pretty well done. I can say that the inside of a computer never seemed so inviting until I was watching this. Well, not so much inviting since it was so deadly, but definitely good looking.

Having Jeff Bridges playing the main character of the movie doesn't hurt either. Even though I kept thinking about The Dude, I really think him being Flynn is really what makes the movie watchable. Having him back for the recently announced sequel is enough to get me back into the theater to see it.

I hope that the sequel focuses on a Nigerian computer manned by an evil scammer who sends spam e-mail throughout the interwebs and Flynn is forced to come up with an awesome e-mail filter program who smashes spam left and right. The climax of the movie will come when the deposed Nigerian prince finds a loophole in the internet and takes over every website, forcing Flynn (and Tron too) to fight their way all the way through pop-up porns and click here to win a Wii banners in order to restore order to the wild world of the world wide web.

...Yeah, that movie would reek of awesomeness.

Religion Friday

There are times in my life where I've been alternately mute, deaf, autistic, blind, had OCD or ADHD. I mean, I've never really been any of those, but out of nowhere I would act as though there was any number of things different with me. Before I got glasses, I thought that it would be awesome to have glasses (I was wrong) before I had braces, the same (again I was way wrong).

What brought this on? Low self-esteem? Perhaps, but unlikely, I've been pretty fine with myself throughout most of my life (aside from high school - but how is that different from anyone). I think it comes from a full on curiosity of how it is to be someone else. See, I've spent my entire life being me, and I never got the chance to be someone else. I think when I was at the character creation screen at the beginning of this game, I accidentally went too fast, and I never really thought out my attributes well enough, and I worry that I might have missed something important in beating the game of life.

As Confucius once said, "Be sure to know others, otherwise you'll never know yourself" (okay, I totally made that up, but it sounds kind of like something he'd say, right?) It comes down to this thing called empathy. I want to understand what everyone in the world is going through so that I can relate to them better. But because I've led such an easy life, I feel like I have to pretend in order to place myself in new shoes all the time to learn a new experience.

Yeah it's extremely stupid, I know, but I also know that part of my calling (and everyone's calling) is to be open and loving to my neighbor and sometimes I think that unless I understand someone else's experiences, I can't love them correctly. Instead I wind up with my foot in my mouth and a kick in my ass (although I'm not sure if its my other foot or someone else's).

So, how can I continue expressing love for strangers without knowing all of their life story? Currently, it comes down to a kind word or gesture, but I think in time I might be able to develop better ways to be open to people. Maybe I'll order a couple hundred Chick tracts to keep on my person at all times...

Gaming Thursday: Lich King (for real this time)

World of Warcraft and I have had an on again-off again relationship for almost 3 years now. There are times when she gets really boring and I seek solace from my 360 every night, and other times where I can't help but staring into her beautiful face for hours at a time relishing every pixelly detail. The Wrath of the Lich King launch in November brought us back to a good part of our relationship, after months of stagnation (a few of which I even left her completely).

As much as I like doing end-game raids and instances with my guild, there is nothing quite like taking your first character through unknown areas and experiencing the quests and locales for the first time. My travel between 70 to 80 was pretty brutal in one sense because of my refusal to change Aziraphale from a healing spec to anything that does some sort of damage. However, this also gave me a good chance to spend time actually looking around the continent of Northrend, and I have to say Blizzard completely outdid themselves. Northrend is leaps beyond the zones of Outland, and quests were varied and interesting enough that I never really found myself getting bored.

The new Death Knight class is so awesome that I haven't played it for longer than 2 hours. The only reason I haven't invested more time into him is because I like to finish everything I possibly can with Azi before moving to another character. From what I've heard though, Death Knights have got a really cool starting zone and the quests that you go through before you enter into the regular world of Azeroth are supposed to be some of the best that Blizzard has done.

Quite possibly my favorite addition that Lich King has brought along is the much discussed phasing aspect, wherein things that you do actually have an affect on the world. The place where this is most obvious is the Icecrown zone, where I started off in a corner with only one safe place to land. As I quested along and helped the Argent Crusade (and later the Ebon Knights) gain ground, they set up new encampments and safehouses for me to enjoy. The only frustrating thing about this phasing is whenever you are trying to help someone else complete a quest beyond where you've been, because if it is not within the same phase for both of you, you won't be able to see them or the mob that they are attacking. It makes sense to be that way, because your character has not helped the factions advance that far within the zone, so you shouldn't be able to see it, but it would be nice if while grouped with someone like that, the game could help out a little.

The other super awesomeness of Lich King is the focus on story. In Burning Crusade and the original WoW, I rarely paid attention to quests and where they were leading me, but there is something about Arthas and his story (perhaps it's because Warcraft 3 was my first introduction to the world) that got me interested in the things I was doing around Northrend. Plus, there are those times that you get to run into Arthas and see the effect that your quests have had on his plans (normally very little).

Now for the downside. Just like before, Lich King can become boring. I'm already level 80 and the guild is raiding, but as nice as that is, I don't know how long I can keep doing it. It's cool getting better gear and learning how to become better at fighting through different bosses and raids, but with the 360 in the same room now, it's becoming harder and harder to say no to a game of Left 4 Dead or putting some time into Fallout 3.

I will say that the unequivocal best (and worst) part of WoW is the people. If it wasn't for my guild and friends around it, I wouldn't be playing. And as for you Horde who like to come up and kill me when I'm in the middle of combat and then camp me... screw you.

World News Wednesday is changing!

Wednesday is changing to whatever I feel like posting from now on. It's not that I don't like writing about news stories, but I have such a hard time always finding something good to write about. That, plus I read news and write news stories all day at work, so it feels too much like work to do it.

So, if there's a big interesting story, I'll be sure to talk about it. Today, I was going to do something about the UGO buyout of 1up, but you can go to nearly any gaming site and read enough about it without me having to throw myself along in it. That, plus I talked about it a month ago when it was just rumored.

I'll do what I can to keep Wednesdays interesting, I think I'll do some music talk, but we'll see. Stay tuned, sorry for swapping it up on you, but I think its for the best. Who knows, maybe we'll switch up the whole blog.

Bookish Tuesday: Twilight (and New Moon)

I went ahead in finishing up the second book yesterday and although I'd like to say that I did it just for this blog, I'll be honest and say that I'm sucked in. The problem is that I don't particularly like the books. I like reading it and I keep hoping it will go somewhere I'm not predicting, but I'm constantly disappointed.

The main thing I am constantly disappointed by is Bella. I don't like her. I don't think she's very sympathetic and I don't think she's a well-rounded character. Although I've just been informed she changes for the better in book 4, I think that it's stupid that I should have to read 3 books before the main character (and narrator) actually becomes interesting. It's not that she couldn't be a good character, but she just wastes so much time being either completely smitten or broody that I don't feel she is explored enough. I wish more time was spent exploring Carlisle (the dad of the vampire family), because his character actually seems interesting, and I definitely think there is a lot to explore there (although, I've got two books to go, so my wish might get answered).

I also don't think that the writing is particularly that good. Not that I'm a particularly good judge (as you can see), but a lot of the time the romance and relationships seem forced and unnatural. However I can't really knock it for this, because it is written as an attempt to get teen and tween girls to read more and I like that. Christine made a good comment on the post from yesterday:

I am not a huge critic of writing, but I know good writing when I read it (i.e. Tolkien, Jordan...). I don't know how many times "his glorious body" or "the smile never reached his eyes" hit the pages but it was too many.

It's not a matter of her conveying the story, or even the emotion of the characters, it's just that she seems to reuse the same descriptors over and over, and it kind of gets annoying.

And yet with all of these complaints and problems that I continually see and whine about while I read, I can't stop reading them. Part of it is because it's just a piece of mindless entertainment that I feel like I can just zone into without having to take my brain along, but part of it is because it is actually an interesting story and I keep hoping that something new and unpredictable will actually wind up happening.

As a complete aside, for those who have read the books (and even those who haven't), here is something I've been wondering: how does Edward (or Jasper, for that matter) make it through school the entire day, when girls are experiencing their time of month? When Edward is around Bella in particular, does he just leave for a week, and then come back? Yeah, I know it's a disturbing question, but just a thought.

Movie Monday: Twilight

Since we'll be talking about the book tomorrow, I'll try not to waste too much time today on what was changed and how bad the movie is in comparison.

That being said, as an adult male (well, adultish anyway) going into this movie, there was very little made for me. I'm not talking huge action blowing up sequences, but just some character depth and some non-moody teenage girl dialogue. When Bella begins to fall in love (I almost put love in quotation marks, but I thought it was too cheezy) with Edward, it lacks any sort of rhyme or reason. You could maybe attribute it to him being a vampire, but then why don't the rest of the girls in the school become as obsessed as Bella does.

Oh, sorry for spoiling the movie. As a brief synopsis for anyone who might not know, the movie is based on a book about a girl who moves to Washington and falls in love with a vampire. After she discovers his secret, she then tries to be accepted by him and his family and hopes to be turned herself so that she can spend the rest of her life (would it still be considered life, or just undeath?) with Edward.

Aside from the plot itself being pretty silly, there were a number of points throughout the movie that Katie and I laughed out loud at... and they weren't meant to be funny. First of all, vampires are okay with being outside in the sun, the only problem is that they sparkle like diamonds when the sunlight hits them. Seriously, what the hell? What sort of survival/predatorial mechanism is this? Supposedly this drives Bella wild with love (or lust, it's hard to tell with her acting), but all it would make me do is laugh at him for sparkling like a diamond (say it in an effeminate voice, that's what makes it funny).

The rest of our laughs came from the ridiculous dialogue, my favorite being "hold on tight, spider monkey" (thanks to Brian for the heads up on that one). When you added it to the nonexistent chemistry between Bella and Edward, it left most of the movie in shambles. You are supposed to believe that Bella is an interesting and different teenager, but she's so wrapped up in herself and her interactions with everyone outside of Edward are so short and undeveloped that I never really felt like she was anyone special.

I also found that the climax seemed to really just be thrown in so that there was a big ending. It doesn't serve much purpose outside of showing that Edward protects Bella and doesn't want her to turn into a vampire. I'll admit that I like the idea of the other vampires in the world, but without giving them time to develop, I found their appearance and the supposed tension they bring to the story to be lacking.

Basically, what I'm saying is that this movie is probably perfect for the teenage girls that it is aimed at, but I didn't exactly care for it. Tomorrow, we'll go further into vampire lore when I get to talk about the book and more about why I don't care about Bella, but for some strange reason I'm already over halfway through the second book.

Gaming Thursday: Wrath of the Lich King

Sorry, it's already Friday afternoon and this post still isn't ready. My new year has been quite a bit busier than expected, so I'm going to have to hold this Gaming Thursday until next week.

Thanks for the patience, and for those who don't have any... jog on.

World News Wednesday: New Years

It's New Year's Eve. Go pop open a bottle of bubbly and enjoy the end of the year.

Or, if you are super awesome, enjoy some time in Amsterdam. That's what makes today World News Wed... the fact that Roger and Rachel are globe-trotting. Be sure to check their site for updates on their trip.

Bookish Tuesday: Slaughterhouse-Five

I finished my first ever Vonnegut book, after years of hearing others sing his praises, and I'll admit that it was a very good read. I will also admit, that it took me about half of the book to really understand what was going on and what it was actually about.

For those who haven't read Slaughterhouse-Five, think of "The Constant" episode of LOST, and you'll have the basic plotline. Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time, and is goes through various parts of his life outside of chronological order. It's hard to follow at first, but once you get the hang of his different episodes in his life, it makes for an interesting story.

There probably isn't much that hasn't already been said about the book, since I learned yesterday that even my mom had to read it for a class at sometime in her schooling, so it's been analyzed since the Enlightenment by my count.

That said, it was an impressing start to my Vonnegut reading, since I have received two more of his books for Christmas and will be delving into them soon. First though, I have a special book that I'm finishing up in order to put next Monday and Tuesday's posts together in a very special way.

Movie Monday: King of Kong

I watched bits and pieces of a number of movies over the last week, but only one all the way through. Sadly, it was a movie that I had already watched earlier this year. Happily, it was a good one that I was glad to give a second viewing.

The King of Kong is a documentary about Steve Wiebe, a man who is very good at Donkey Kong, and subsequently thinks that he can get the world record high score. The only thing standing in his way is the current record holder, Billy Mitchell. The documentary plays out almost unbelievably with heroes and villains, twists and turns, and a climactic showdown (sort of). What makes it so good is that with all of these things, you have you constantly remind yourself that these are real people and not just a made up story.

I know that a lot of the drama built into the movie is derived from smart editing, but it's so well put together that both times I've watched it, I feel myself being emotionally manipulated so perfectly that I wind up not caring and throwing everything I have behind Steve Wiebe.

The good thing about it is that even people who don't care about video games (like my wife and her sister), they both completely enjoyed the movie and got caught up in it as much as me. Rumor has it that they are already working on a scripted adaptation of the movie, and while I'm sure I'll be out to see it, I don't think it will be able to capture everything in this documentary.

Christmas Week

Since it is Christmas week and I don't know how often I'll have access to a computer or time to think up posts, I thought it would be a good week to take some time off. I might pop up a random post or two, but probably not on topic.

Enjoy your Christmas week!

Religion Friday

As part of my job, I have to read through Police Reports every day, and every so often I come across some funny stuff. Other times, I find things that are truly upsetting. A recent example of this (and the focus of today's post) was a report in which Officers were called to a church over a case of criminal trespassing. When they got to the church, they met with a member who told them that the pastor had told him to call the church if homeless people came by looking for help/shelter. Being a good parishioner, the member called the police who came and arrested the man for coming to the church for help.

Now because I was not there for any of this, I can't say how much of what was said was true, but I can say that when I first read the report I was pretty pissed off. I understand that there is hesitation and fear when someone needs help and you aren't exactly sure what to do, but to be a pastor (someone who is called to be a leader of the church) and to specifically tell someone not to help... I don't understand. I don't know the full story of the church or the pastor, so there may be circumstances that led to this decision, but I can't think of any that would have someone believe that God didn't want them to help.

I admit that I am nowhere near perfect or a source of knowledge for this subject. I (stupidly) don't seek opportunities to help and rarely do situations come knocking on my door, but I would like to think that if the opportunity presented itself, I would be a willing servant.

What is this fear that prevents us from helping? Why do I not go out every night seeking people who need shelter? Is it right to go with the standby answer of "you can't help everyone all the time"? What can be done?

All of those are questions that have been flying through my head, and I have yet to come up with a satisfying answer to any of them. Is something obvious just escaping my thoughts? Let me know what you think.

Gaming Thursday: The Symposium

No, sadly, The Symposium (as awesome as it sounds) isn't a game but instead a group of games journalists that Shawn Elliott has brought together in order to discuss the industry and specific topics that come up consistently when games journalism is discussed. The first part has been posted on Shawn's blog here, and I have to encourage anyone who is interested in game reviews to check it out. It's extremly long but incredibly fascinating.

Now, since I'm not a professional game reviewer and only do it for fun, I can't offer much insight into the industry. On the other hand, I can say that when I began writing about games for this updated version of my blog I knew that I was going to have to decide what the end product would be. Would I offer a score for the game or avoid that? As you can tell from my previous gaming posts, I decided against that.

This was for the reason that I knew that giving a game would make me feel restricted in saying how much I liked it or disliked it without having to eat my words later on. For instance, I know I crapped on Mirror's Edge, but that doesn't take away from the fact that there were still some things I truly liked about it, and if I were to give it a grade (say a "C"), I would have the problem of always feeling that I did wrong. Instead, I just decided to talk about pieces of the games that I liked and disliked and let you (the reader) decide whether the game interests you or not.

So, for those of you that are still here reading my words, I urge you to go back and click on that link and read. I really can't wait for the next edition to come out.

World News Wednesday: EGM

News link here... I know it's a week old.

This story may not mean too much to many of you, but for me it's a pretty big deal. As I've mentioned before, 1up.com is my favorite site for gaming. The editors are incredibly good, and their podcasts are the only gaming podcasts I listen to now.

So, what makes this news? Well, if UGO buys out 1up (it's probably explained a lot better by former 1up editor Jeff Green on the newest Gamers with Jobs podcast - which I had to listen to because it had both Jeff and Shawn Elliott on it), they could theoretically dump everyone associated with the site and just take the name for their own use as part of their network. While that may not ever happen, even if they cut a few people, it would definitely hurt the games journalist industry. 1up has an amazing staff of writers, and should any be let go the site would suffer at any number of levels from their lack of presence.

I guess it's a similar to changes happening throughout the world as the economic climate worsens. We are learning how to adjust to the many changes that have been happening, and we can only hope that our favorite things survive. That's how I am with 1up, I know that something big could happen, but I just have to hope that it all works out for the best.

Bookish Tuesday: Naked

Thanks to This American Life, I decided to pick up a David Sedaris book.

For no particular reason (outside of the fact that it was the first one I saw), I got Naked a couple weeks ago and even though I knew before I even started that I'd like it, I've been surprised by how much. From his stories on This American Life, I knew Sedaris was a funny guy and Naked is filled with some really funny stories, but there is a lot more to these essays than just humor.

Sedaris has led an incredibly interesting life (at least by the way he tells it), and it's pretty great to read about everything he's experienced and how he's grown from those points within his life.

The other thing I love about the book is that since it is a collection of essays, it is easy to break up and read in chunks, although I have to admit that even when I plan to only read one story, I normally wind up reading two or three.

So, I've added one more author to my list to keep reading. Vonnegut is next.

Movie Monday: A Few Movies for One Week

In an attempt to make up for time lost during football season, I watched 3 movies this week. Well more two and a half, since the last one I didn't pay too much attention (which is sad because it was probably my favorite of all three).

First up came Dan in Real Life, which even though it had Steve Carrell starring, I honestly wasn't expecting much. Turns out I got even less than expected. There were a few funny lines, but Carrell is a fantastic comedic actor, and they used less than none of his strengths. The script was predictable after the 15 minute set up, and the resolution for the film left me displeased. They never truly resolved the main conflict of the movie and that deserves a punch in the face.

On Friday I went and saw The Day the Earth Stood Still, but not the new version with Neo. Instead we watched the original 1950's movie and even though it wasn't my favorite old movie, it was actually really good. My only problem with the movie came with humanity's stupidity. Why the Hell can country leaders not put aside a conflict when faced from an outer space aggressor?! It's irrational and stupid... oh wait, that's the point of the movie. At least it can be said that I'm interested in the remake, if only to see how bad they screw this up.

Finally, we watched most of the documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster yesterday. I really liked the delivery of this documentary, taking a more light-hearted tone like that of Super-Size Me, all the while dealing with a potentially huge issue - steroids (pun intended). While I'm not a sports person by any stretch of the imagination, there was a large amount of information being thrown around about the issue and I definitely am ready to sit back down and finish the movie, if only to learn what happens when the narrator reveals to his parents that his brothers have been taking steroids (gasp).

So, while it may not have been much of a quality week, I can at least say that it was a quantity week and I finally got some movie watching in.

Religion Friday: This American Life

For today's post, I refer you to last week's episode of the amazing radio show This American Life.

While it wasn't the best episode ever, the focus is on a Pentecostal preacher (Carlton Pearson), who went from friends with Oral Roberts to a man who is convinced that God told him there is no Hell, and it makes for a very interesting story.

It is a hard thing to argue against what people think they have heard from God. Pearson, who is a well-read man, builds his arguments well and truly believes his theology. As such, I don't know what to say against him. I don't necessarily agree with his theology, but I also don't think it is my place to argue and tell him that he's wrong.

Since theology is an incredibly personal thing as is, it's very hard to argue against someone's beliefs, and that's not a bad thing. Instead of reading me ramble on about this though, I recommend you go back and just listen to that episode. Hey, it's free!

Gaming Thursday: Game Music

I love video game music.

I have devoted a lot of hard drive space, phone memory, and memory on my mp3 player to soundtracks from video games. I even pull up Rainwave whenever I can to listen (I'm the #6 top listener). Some people pull up the Mario Bros. ringtone or a bit of Zelda music here or there because they think its kind of funny, but I could honestly spend all day listening to the original Sonic soundtrack.

Some of the appeal comes from the nostalgic value of hearing a song that I remember hearing as I played through a particular game, but I've also found that there are games that I've never even played and have already fallen in love with their music (Cave Story, I'm looking at you). Something about listening to various game themes throughout the day is really calming. I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love it.

Anyway, the point of this post was to direct you to this link. Download that album and enjoy it for the Christmas season!

World News Wednesday: Self-Embedding

First things first, this is the 200th post of the blog, so yippee!!! Now that we have that out of the way, here is today's article.

I'll admit that I'm kind of an emo kid. Partially because I like the music and partially because I like to cry in a room by myself. Okay, so I'm not really emo, nor have I ever been, I'm more of just a geek or nerd (they are two different things). Having said as much, I honestly don't understand the idea of cutting (supposedly the precursor to this self-embedding in the article)... and yes I'm sorry for lumping emo kids in with people who cut themselves, I just like to make gross over-generalizations to make writing easier.

It seems pretty logical that there is something psychologically (or maybe chemically) different about these teens/young adults. If you take the quote from Allie W. in the article: I was just sitting in class. I was kind of getting the urge to cut, but knew I couldn't leave class right then, there must be something that can be done to help the kids. I know it comes down to more than just finding help, since teenagers would be quite reluctant to divulge personal information such as this.

But let's get back to the article at hand. Self-mutilation is nothing new, nor is the idea of sticking things under the skin. I knew that before even reading the article, but then again,I figured it to be a thing of the past and wouldn't be coming up again within today's youth. As I mentioned above, I think that there must be something different within the make-up of a self-mutilator, if only because I don't understand the need for inflicting pain upon myself.

So, what can be done to help remedy this situation? Should we force all kids to attend a class/seminar during school about these dangers? Would that be effective? I'm pretty sure that teachers are required to report such behavior like this, but what else can teachers and parents do to help the kids?

A lot of it, I would think, comes down to the teen's home and schooling situation. Stress brought about from either of these locations (along with the many social stresses of the teenage years) only serve to exacerbate the situation, making them want to inflict pain more. So, I think maybe something could be introduced to reduce stress within the day of a teenager. Maybe mandatory naptime after lunch? I know that would make my day so much less stressful.

I know I'm making it seem way too simple of a solution, but that's only because of my limited knowledge. Does anyone know more who could offer more insight or a solution? Feel free to leave comments, I think this could be a good discussion.

Bookish Tuesday: Writing a Novel

So for years, I've been trying to write a book. Actually three separate ones, two fiction and one non.

Both are really good ideas (or so I think), but my problem comes in that although I know in my head where the plots are heading and the pieces that need to be hit on the way to the finale, but I just can't piece it together in an interesting way.

Plus, even though I find the story ideas good, I also know that I have nothing completely special to set them apart from the other books on the market (that aside from the fact that I wrote them).

So, who has suggestions on writing? I've been doing this updated blog for 6 months, so you've got a good sample of my writing style to draw upon. Aside from that, does anyone know a good book or two for helping with writing?

All suggestions are super welcome.

Movie Monday: The Pixar Story

Upon a recommendation from some friends, we stuck The Pixar Story into my Netflix Instant Queue to watch last week. What we watched turned out to be a pretty good documentary about some of the best moviemakers currently in the business.

While a lot of the more current stuff that the movie goes through is pretty well known, what with the contract issues with Disney and the focus on quality from the studio, the best part of the movie was the beginning. It showed how John Lasseter began his career with Disney by working at Disneyland and then moving into their animation studio. However, his interest in making The Brave Little Toaster a computer generated feature ultimately gets him fired and he is forced to find another way to get his ideas out. Tons of hard work and support from Steve Jobs and George Lucas wind up with Pixar Studios being formed and making a crap ton of money.

Yeah, it winds up being a typical documentary story about a guy who starts from nothing and rises to the top, but there are definitely some really cool things to see along the way. I found it mostly interesting seeing the rise of CGI in films, I knew that Pixar had something to do with ILM, but I never knew to what extent until seeing this movie.

It was also awesome to see the Pixar workspace, and it made me wish I could be creative and go work there. Seriously, the movie is worth watching just to see their office building during the latter parts of the movie.

Gaming Thursday: Left 4 Dead

Ever since I heard of its existence, I have been waiting to play Left 4 Dead. When the demo finally came out a few weeks back, I logged in and played the 30 minute piece nearly 20 times all the way through on all of the difficulty levels. Needless to say, when my copy arrived last week, I peed myself.

It must be said starting out that this game is not meant to be played single player. Although the AI characters do a great job of making smart decisions and healing you (and each other) when necessary, it is nowhere near as fun to play with the computer as it is to play with friends. Friends make mistakes (sometimes on purpose), and friends know how to communicate best with you.

Outside of the horde of regular zombies that you must fight your way past as you move to the rescue station or safe house, the game introduces 5 super zombies to make your journey that much more difficult. Smokers and Hunters are similar, in that they will lurk in the dark and try to either pounce on you (Hunters) or grab you with their tongue (Smokers) at that exact moment that you weren't paying attention and deal out some damage before your buddies can rescue you. Boomers will wait just around a corner just for the chance to either vomit on you, or be close enough that when you kill them, they explode on you. Outside of this being pretty disgusting, it also draws the horde directly to you and you have to fight them off while being temporarily blinded by the green gunk all over the screen.

The final two super zombies are complete bullet sinks and require a bit of work to get past. The Tank is exactly what he sound like - huge and nigh-unstoppable. He requires that everyone in the group focus on him until he drops, because if he gets close to anyone, there is little chance that they can get away without being injured in some capacity or another. Finally, the Witch is best left undisturbed. As soon as you start to hear crying, cut your lights off and keep your eyes open. If the Witch gets disturbed by you shooting next to her or your lights flashing on her, whoever did it, is incapacitated in one hit, and if everyone isn't fast enough to take her down after that, that person is dead.

Now, all of these super zombies (except the Witch) are controllable in the Versus mode, but since I haven't had enough time to sink into that mode, I can't comment much on it yet (I've been spending my time trying to survive the story modes).

Speaking of story, although it isn't necessary at all since all you do is try to survive from point A to point B and call in the rescue, Valve has done an awesome job with telling the story just through the environment. Any time I get to a safe house, I have to hang around for a good 5 minutes to read everything that is written on the walls. Sometimes it provides some hints for gameplay (like avoiding the witches), but largely it just gives the entire world some depth, as you read about people who couldn't wait any longer for a loved one or people who have left their theories on the time it takes to turn into a zombie.

Valve is all about making quality games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. It is the best zombie game I've ever played.

World News Wednesday

I only have two things to really say about this article.

1: We need to spend more money on our education system. Our kid's deserve the best that we can give them, and looking at some schools recently, it seems as though we aren't paying them too much mind.

2: Teachers deserve to get paid more. This is so obvious. Why are actors and athletes paid so much, when we barely pay those who we expect to raise the future (at least that's what some parents think)?

...That is all.

Bookish Tuesday: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Vacations are always the perfect time for a good Pratchett book, and last week was no exception. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a book taking place in Discworld, although it isn't really a part of the main series of books, since it is an off shoot kid's branch like the Wee Free Men series.

Like a lot of other Discworld books, Maurice pokes fun at the idea of kid's stories and particularly that of the pied piper. See, Maurice is a talking cat who hangs out with a group of talking rats. They, along with a dumb-looking kid, go from town to town "removing" the terrible rodent population. As they move on to their final heist in the town of Bad Blintz, things begin to go wrong in a way that only Terry Pratchett can do. Maurice is a fun character to read with all his little cat habits and ways of thinking and I really hope that he (and the rats) get some more appearances within Discworld.

The book is just as funny as the adult Discworld books, if not moreso than some of them, and was awarded the 2001 Carnegie medal (although I don't know what that means, it sounds pretty good). Let's just say that The Amazing Maurice is definitely a good stepping stone for getting into the Discworld books, something that everyone should be reading.

Movie Monday: Perfume - The Story of a Murderer

I put Perfume on my Netflix queue as kind of a joke. We had seen the preview with some friends, and one of them was quite creeped out by the trailer, so I decided that we'd have to watch the movie. Things fell apart when the movie actually arrived, so I wound up just watching it with Katie.

Altogether, it wasn't a bad movie at all. In fact, it was an intense ride that I really enjoyed, right up to the last 20 minutes or so. The movie is focused on Jean-Baptiste Grennouille, who was born on the ground of a Parisian fish marked in the 18th Century. As he grows up, he learns that he has an intense sense of smell, and after spending some time working at a tannery he encounters a woman with an intoxicating scent. Grennouille follows her smell into an alley where, in an attempt to smell her more, he accidentally kills her.

It's hard to say what exactly they are trying to make of Grennouille throughout the movie. Opinions I have read place Grennouille as a spawn of the devil due to his lack of scent, but while watching the movie, I felt that he was just an autistic man who was driven by his infatuation with the girl's scent. Either way, be becomes obsessed with learning how to store the scent of a human, and after an apprenticeship with a perfumer in Paris, where he learns that the best perfumes have a 12 note "chord" of smells, followed by a 13th grace note, he travels to Grasse, where he finally learns how to preserve the scent of a human. The only problem is that he kills the girls everytime he obtains their smell.

Without giving away too much of the rest of the movie, it's fairly obvious where the movie heads, and remains an intense ride, right up until the last 20 minutes. At that point, the movie kind of lost me. Not that it didn't make sense, but it just seemed to lack the credibility and realistic grittiness of the rest of the film. I will say that the final scene almost makes up for the preceding one, but I really wish that they had just skipped directly to it.

Bookish Tuesday through Religion Friday

Happy Thanksgiving. I will be away without interwebs for the Thanksgiving break, so rather than try to write up a post for everyday, I'll do it all here.

The book I'll be reading over break is Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. So far, it's as good as any other Pratchett book and I'm ready to get some time to just read without the distraction of work and such.

News for this week is from this story (thanks to Rachel for the heads up). There isn't much to discuss on this aside from the fact that we know that Pandas are dumb creatures, but that doesn't mean you can just climb over a protective fence to try to pet one.

Gaming over the weekend will consist of a lot of Rock Band, some Trivial Pursuit, and hopefully a few sessions of Left 4 Dead and the tabletop game Zombies!!! (the exclamation points are part of the name).

Finally, the focus of Religion Friday is (obviously) to take some time to think about all we've been given and be thankful for what we have.

See you next week!

Movie Monday: Expelled

I'll admit, before I even started this movie, I was prejudiced against it. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews and nothing really over the top positive. Maybe I just missed it, but let's just say I my hopes weren't high when I began.

Maybe it was these lowered expectations, or maybe it was the fact that I was playing WoW while I watched, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good documentary. Although, I'm a bit biased towards the religious side of the argument, I think that the film did a good job of presenting the faith-based idea of intelligent design. While the movie isn't focused as much on this as it is about the fact that scientists become discredited for just presenting the theory as an option. There are definitely some sob stories about the number of professors who were unfairly let go for their presentation of the theory, but as a whole they are presented well.

The problem is that the other side doesn't get treated as well. The scientists/professors who they bring in to talk about the evolutionary theory are largely anti-religion, and the movie plays that up. Richard Dawkins is brought in to defent evolution, and in the grand finale Ben Stein (the narrator/host) does everything he possibly can to make it seem like Dawkins is giving credence to the theory of God and intelligent design, something he would never do.

In all it was a good documentary, but definitely one that had its side chosen from the beginning, which isn't a bad thing, but definitely should be known up front.

Religion Friday

We were sitting at the local pizza place last night, eating some delicious pizza and kicking serious butt at the trivia contest, when people were suddenly distracted by something going on on one of the televisions. At first I thought Georgia Tech had made an amazing play or something, but when I turned my head to watch, I found something quite a bit more disturbing (seriously, the video is pretty disturbing, but that link has a write up so you don't have to watch the video).

Now, I'll come out right now and say that I've never really been a big Palin fan, but after watching this and discussing with others, there are definitely some people who are trying to take her down further (even though her Vice Presidential campaign is already over). As such, the problem with the video and the interview as a whole is not that Sarah is at fault, it's that the producers and directors of the show just wanted her to look bad. Why is it necessary to kick someone while they are down?

It happens all the time around us. We find out someone's insecurities and failures and use that to take advantage of them or their situations. A lot of the time it's not even conscious. It becomes the natural thing to want to hold power over someone else, and here is where we find ourselves with the calling to be different.

It may seem a stretch, but when Jesus said to the disciples that they should be last instead of first and strive to be servants, part of it means giving up trying to exert (for lack of a better term) power over others. That means to help people up when they've been knocked down. The election is over, there is no more need for the "liberal media" to attempt to hurt the reputations of Palin, or any other politician.

For us, we need to learn how to not only be content to serve, but to strive to be a servant all the time and that means giving up power. It's a hard thing to relinquish control of situations and people, but it is necessary to become someone's servant and do what you can to help them move forward rather than to push your own ideas ahead.

Gaming Thursday: Mirror's Edge

After talking about the demo for Mirror's Edge last week, I was glad to get a copy of the full game from my brother to see how well it held up.

Not surprisingly, it's a bunch of fun to run around the city jumping from building to building and running across walls. It's the same thing that I loved about the demo, only with a bunch more room to play around in. Similarly, the same problems that bothered me in the demo were back full force.

I understand that the guys shooting at me and attacking me are there to add tension to the game, but I really just find them to be highly annoying. There is nothing more frustrating than to be running perfectly through the game, only to be shot in the back by a bad guy that I had previously ignored because I thought the focus of the game was running and not fighting. While on this subject, having a helicopter constantly shooting at me while I make my way up a building is a pretty dumb idea on the bad guys' part. I mean, I'm standing on the side of an office building filled with innocent people enjoying their view out their large windows, when a barrage of bullets intended for a single runner penetrates the glass and takes down Jimmy from accounting... and these guys are supposed to be cops.

Well I think they are cops anyway, because the story is so meaningless and dull that I automatically hit the skip button as soon as possible. I don't really care why I'm running from place to place, all I want to do is run.

So, if it weren't for the story and the incredibly annoying combat/gunfights, I would find Mirror's Edge to be so much more fun. As it is, I'm having a hard enough time convincing myself to finish playing it when I have Left 4 Dead giving me a much better time blasting zombies (more on that soon) and trying to get my Paladin up to level 80 on WoW (although I'm having trouble getting that done with so much going on). Basically, I like Mirror's Edge when it is doing what it does best - encouraging you to run. When it tries to add in the rest of the junk, it just seems to fall (get it? like falling off the buildings... never mind).

World News Wednesday: Good News

Today's News is the best news!

We are really excited about this development. It means that at any point now we can be called to do respite foster care (we decided to start of with the more temporary care and build). I know it's not technically world news, but it's the best news I've heard this past week, and I figured I ought to pass it on.

Bookish Tuesday: Jurassic Park

In honor of Michael Crichton, I picked up Jurassic Park last week for some light reading and I began to remember why I loved reading his books.

First of all they are intelligent, whether you realize it or not. I read JP when I was in middle school, and it was a fun story about a dinosaur experiment gone wrong. As I've gotten older and reread the book a number of times, each read brings to light another aspect of Crichton's focus. Sure it's about how dinosaurs aren't meant to be constrained within a park outside of their natural time period, but there is also the discussion of bioethics and theoretical mathematics that I never really grasped until recently.

Even with all that heady subject material, the book is still incredibly well written. Crichton paints an incredibly detailed world so that you find yourself immersed within and makes it difficult to come back to reality afterword. Plus, he has a part in the book that I will remember for the rest of my life. When they are hunting the raptors, Muldoon shoots one with a rocket, and it explodes like a tomato thrown against a brick wall (or something to that effect). Needless to say, that little description has stayed with me since childhood.

Finally, the main reason I like Crichton's books is because they are so much better than the movies that are based on them. Congo, Timeline, The 13th Warrior (based on Eaters of the Dead)... even Jurassic Park, none of the films can hold a candle to the awesomeness of the books.

Movie Monday: Quantum of Solace

First things first, Quantum of Solace is not as good as Casino Royale. Do not go into this movie expecting to see the same movie. That being said, Quantum is still a really good action/Bond movie.

Picking up maybe 5 minutes after the end of Casino Royale, Quantum starts off with a car chase. One that is incredibly difficult to follow due to the fact that no shot is longer than .02 seconds. Once they get the adrenaline flowing with this chase, the movie doesn't ever really get the chance to slow down. Chases, followed by shootouts, followed by more chases leave the whole movie gasping for air during the rare slowdown. This is the reason that I think the movie began to fall apart. There isn't enough time to ever build the story or give you a chance to really care about what is happening.

The best part of the entire movie wasn't even an action sequence. Instead it took place during an opera, where Bond is witnessing how the group of bad guys deals their business. It's a really cool scene and is all that much better when Bond decides that it's time to break it up. Of course it has to end with a small chase/gun fight, but I guess that can be forgiven since the build up to them was actually interesting, and somewhat easy to follow.

The rest of the plot is pretty standard Bond fare, although I wish they had taken more time to work on it and give you a chance to actually see/understand what was going on. I'm not asking for a super amazing plot, just something that actually matters and isn't just secondary to coming up on the next action sequence.

All told, it wasn't a bad movie by any means, and was in fact very enjoyable. I still think that Daniel Craig is an amazing James Bond, and I'm ready for the next installment.

Religion Friday: Losing Focus

Even after however many months I've been doing this, these Religion Friday posts are still the absolute hardest things to write. I have begun applying for seminary next year, and I'm coming to a similar problem.

As part of the application process, the school is requiring me to write a 3-4 page faith autobiography. It's not that I have nothing to write about, I'm just having a really hard time piecing together what I want to say. Here's what they want:

• Significant life experiences that have affected your view of self, God, and the world. Include references to family members and significant others, courses, and experiences in college, church, service-related activities, and employment.
• Academic and other interests that motivate you to engage in theological studies.
• Ways the MTS program at Candler School of Theology fits your interests.
• Your plans following completion of study at Candler School of Theology.

There is just so much to say and so many different ways to explain them, that I feel lost before I've even started. Do I focus on the journey or the end point? Should I spend most of my time on college where I think I changed the most, or spend more time building the foundation to those changes?

It's similar when I try to write these posts. I know there are so many things to discuss, but I never know where to start and what I want my focus to be. I guess that's also similar to the way faith is. We know that our calling is to reflect the love of Christ, but that is such a general command that it is so difficult to put it into a full practice unless you set up a short-term goal to attain.

So, I'm currently in the process of figuring out my short-term goals for my life and faith. I know where I want to be and what I want to be doing further on, but I'm having a hard time finding a focus for the upcoming days and months.

Gaming Thursday: Demos

So, I've been playing a few demos on my 360 this week and all are very good, however I'm only going to buy one of them.

The first is the action/fighter Naruto: The Broken Bond. Based on the anime series (which I quite enjoy), its a simple title that is fun to use up a good 15 minutes playing. However, since I found nothing incredibly interesting about it, I don't think I'll wind up buying it unless it drops under $20. The one thing it really has going for it is the hand seals. I really like how you have to hold L and then move your sticks in specific directions in order to pull of different moves.

The second demo I went through was Mirror's Edge, which is a really cool first person parkour-type simulator. I found the controls to be really natural and it was a ton of fun to run around the city jumping from building to building. The main issue with the game is that the combat was a bit wonky. It's good because you are encouraged to run from enemies, but in the parts where you are forced to encounter a baddie, I always found myself just getting hit until I got the chance for the disarm. There was no strategy, just a matter of hitting the button at the right second.

My final demo I have already preordered and will come in next week - Left 4 Dead. Quite possibly the most fun I've had playing a game in a long time (and it's just the demo), Left 4 Dead is a zombie survival simulator that is wonderfully intense. I'll be sure to give more information on it in a few weeks once I've had the chance to play more of the game. So far though, in just 3 days, I've played through the entire demo about 15 times and every time has been a ball. In all honesty, even after just the demo, this is on the short list for my top games of the year.... although part of that could just be blamed on my complete love for zombies.

World News Wednesday: Pups

A nice, light post today.

Since I can't have the kind of dog I want, I think we need to petition our future president to get either a Siberian Husky or a German Shepherd. My preference is on the Husky because of their awesome eyes, but German Shepherds are super smart. Either way, it had better be an awesome dog.

As for names, I'm going to have to say Captain Carrot for a boy, and Sergeant Angua for a girl. Sergeant Angua is preferable, just because she is a werewolf and it makes better sense for a name for the dog, but Capt. Carrot is still a sweet name.

Any other suggestions? I think mine are pretty dang good.

Bookish Tuesday: A Year at the Movies

I hate Kevin Murphy (of MST3K and Rifftrax fame). Well, really I don't hate him, I just hate that he had the idea for his book A Year at the Movies and got to do it before I could have the chance.

This is my second time reading the book, and both times it has made me want to do an experiment just like Kevin did. See, like the title says, he took an entire year and went to a theater every day to see a movie. He took trips around the world to visit different festivals and viewing situations and provides an interesting commentary throughout it all. He doesn't waste time reviewing the movies he sees and instead tells the stories of the theaters and his experiences surrounding the films.

We all know that going to the movies is much more than the flick itself. It all comes down to who you go with and your relationship with them to make the time worthwhile. Even the crappiest of movies can be a ton of fun if you are watching it with a group of like-minded friends. That's what makes MST3K and Rifftrax so good, because they do exactly what you do when you watch a movie that isn't particularly engaging.

Maybe one day I'll be able to get a grant to do an awesome experience like this. Maybe I'll finally be able to do the idea that I had to play through the top 50 video games in a row. I guess it will all have to wait till I get rich and famous... in other words, it'll never happen.

Movie Monday: The Lion King

I absolutely love The Lion King. It is my absolute favorite animated Disney film. I know some people complain about the Elton John songs, but I think that they just don't know how to tune in to the awesomeness that is "Hakuna Matata" or "Just Can't Wait to be King."

The animation of The Lion King is definitely the best of all Disney features. Everything moves so smoothly and I just love the character designs.

The only thing that sucks about the movie is watching it on DVD and forgetting to turn off the extra song. It's just not as good as the rest of the soundtrack.

Religion Friday

Sorry I'm late again, it's been quite a week. As such, I haven't had much time to plan this post, so it will likely wind up either rambling or short and inconsequential.

I'm not one to dwell on past events. It's not that I don't like to reminisce, but for some reason I just don't like to think about how things might have been "better" back then or think about how we did things differently. I prefer for the focus to be on the now.

In a similar sense, I think faith requires us to constantly be within the instant. When time is used up thinking about past failures or victories, current problems are neglected. For example, if I spend my time thinking about what I should have done as soon as I got out of college, I miss out on all the experiences that are going on around me. Even though I may not like what is going on, there is something to be said for pressing onward through difficult times because you always come out changed.

The main problem with me focusing on the present is that I never know what to put my energies into. I know through my past experience what I want to do, but because the future is so uncertain, I don't know what the target is right now.

Life sure would be nice if it was like Fable 2, and I could just set the quest that I wanted to complete and follow the little gold trail that extends out in front of me to my goal. Plus, I'd get to carry a huge shotgun around and bust up some beetles.

Gaming Thursday: Fable 2, or Why am I always good?

I've been playing Fable 2 for a little over a week now, and I'm loving it. Sure, it's a bit glitchy (I've gotten stuck in rooms and on little walls, not to mention annoying camera angles) but I still love the world and the choices of Fable 2. I wrote about the first Fable last week, and this game is pretty much the same. I love it and can't wait to get back to playing more, it's fun.

Here's my problem though: I can't be bad. I run into annoying people who need to die and I see things I want to steal everywhere, but I just can't do it. It won't hurt the game at all for me to be evil, in fact, there are some people who will only like you if you are a jerk. For some reason though, I have to keep pressing on as my good girl until I beat the game before I switch to bad mode. I do this with all open world games too. Whenever I'm given that good/evil choice, I pick good on my first playthrough (I have had times on subsequent plays that I choose evil just to see it, but I rarely finish up).

Am I a goody-two-shoes, or is there something subconscious that knows that good seems to have a better ending to the game? I don't know, but I think that as soon as I finish up the story quest in Fable 2, my girl will change from her sweet monogamous ways into an evil polygamist tyrant, just because I can.

-Edit-
I just finished Fable 2, and even being a good gal, there were some seriously tough decisions to be made, although I still absolutely loved it.

World News Wednesday: Sad Day

Today is a sad, sad day.

Overshadowed by the election, we lost one of my favorite authors on Tuesday - Michael Crichton.

His books remain some of the best (and most realistic) science fiction I've ever read. For that, I say we all take some time and pick up a Crichton book. I'm going to re-read Jurassic Park.

Sad, sad day.

Bookish Tuesday: Discworld

For those of you who have not read any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books, I suggest that you close down your internet browser, get in your car (or on your bike), and go to the library or bookstore and pick one up. Any of them will be fine for your first (although I would suggest starting with something like Going Postal or Guards, Guards), but the important thing is that you start reading the series.

For today's post, rather than going on and on about the whole series, I figured I would give you my 5 favorite Discworld characters. To be honest they aren't really in any order (aside from my #1), because I love them all so much (even more than my own unborn children).

#5. Death - The greatest character to ever talk in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, Death is a constant source of hilarity throughout the series. Every time I'm reading and I happen to glance at an upcoming page and see those caps, I start to get really excited. Partially because someone is about to die, which would advance the plot and provide some mystery, but mostly because the newly dead person's conversation with Death nearly always gives me the giggles. Death is not only good as a bit part throughout the series, but when he becomes the focus of an entire novel, you know there is something to look forward to (see Hogfather).

#4 Lord Vetinari - This former member of the Guild of Assassins (who never wore black, but really just a dark grey) is now the Patrician of Discworld's largest city Ankh Morpork. As such, he has transformed the place from a cesspool into an arguably thriving hub of culture and economy. While some may consider him to be a tyrant ruler, he has consistently been at the forefront of ensuring things in the city run right. None of these are really what make him such a good character though (although the tyrant thing is definitely a good bit). Instead, it's how incredibly cool and calculated Vetinari is. Whenever anyone in the books (or the readers) thinks that he's gone off his rocker by saying this or doing that, by the end of the story you always realize what a smart man he is... also, he's a great smartass.

#3 Moist von Lipwig - Moist is a con artist who is charged by Lord Vetinari to transform the postal service (and later the banks) into something that actually works. To say that Going Postal is the funniest book in the Discworld library would not be a stretch. It is one of the few Discworld books that I have read multiple times (I've read it three times, and listened to the audiobook once) and every single time it makes me laugh out loud. The ideas that Moist comes up with in order to get the office running are so brilliantly odd that it makes the book so much fun to follow. The only real reason that Moist isn't my favorite Discworld character is because he's only been in two books so far, and therefore hasn't had much time to develop.

#2 Rincewind - Rincewind is the first main character of the Discworld novels, and some will stand by him as the best. I agree that he's wonderfully funny, especially in his own brand of heroism, but for some reason I never really get too into his books. The fact that he ramains in my top 5 characters is a testament to how well written he is and how incredibly funny the circumstances that he finds himself in. I don't mean to be down on Rincewind (I want to name my first child after him... well him and the #1), but as much as I love his character, for some reason the stories around him just aren't my favorite.

#1 Samuel Vimes - Sam Vimes is the ultimate. I love every story concerning the Night Watch of Ankh Morpork and since Sam is the leader, it goes without saying that he is my favorite. Tracing him back to Guards, Guards where he's nothing but a stupid drunk all the way to Thud! when we begin to see him becoming a family man with Sam Vimes Jr., Sam Vimes is such a well-developed character that I absolutely love delving into his stories to see what will happen next. I mentioned a long time ago that Night Watch was my second favorite book of all time, and that still remains. Read Guards, Guards first then go to Men at Arms at least before you do Night Watch, but I will stand by my statement that it is a book that must be read... and not just for fantasy people.

There you have it. I know I had to skip over some awesome people like Captain Carrot, Sgt. Angua, and Twoflower, but I think I made a good list here. What about those of you who've read some Discworld? Who are your favorites?

Movie Monday: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

I'm a Kevin Smith fan, with Mallrats staying as my favorite of his movies. Zack and Miri doesn't knock Mallrats out, but it was definitely a good Kevin Smith movie. To get it out of the way, if the title makes you uncomfortable and you don't know who Kevin Smith is, this movie is more than likely not your cup of tea.

The movie is about two friends (Zack and Miri), who are out of money and late on bills, so they come up with the fantastic idea to make a porno in order to get back on their feet. Of course, things go wrong as both Zack and Miri discover that they are in love with each other and it makes their job that much harder to go through.

Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are great as Zack and Miri. Banks holds her own extremely well in the foul-mouthed script and she's dang funny to boot. The whole porno shooting scenes are quite hilarious, especially any scene with Jason Mewes. It's my first time seeing him as anything by Jay and I found him to be very funny.

Like a lot of the movies I see, you know whether you'll like it before you even see it just by the names attached, and this is no different. If you know you like Kevin Smith or Seth Rogen, go see it. If you are uncomfortable by the title, I suggest you go watch Mallrats or another Kevin Smith movie on DVD so you can cut it off if need be.

P.S. Be sure to watch through the credits if you go.