  A Man of Constant Sorrow | 
Posted - 1/30/2006 3:13:51 AM | Okay, at this point in time I've resolved to finish up that damn Top Ten list on Thursday and Friday night later this week. I simply don't have the time to do it any of the other nights this week, and currently I just don't have the desire to do it. Though, you do have my promise, barring any sort of illness which prevents me from standing, or simply a better way to spend my time, that list will have its penultimate posted Thursday night/Friday morning and the finale will be posted on Friday night/Saturday morning. So, there you go. How's that for stone-cold resolve?
Over the weekend, I finally indulged some lingering urges by watching Blade, Cube, and Lost Highway (with Blue Velvet being on queue for tomorrow night). Of the trio, I was surprised that I had a kind of seething hatred for Blade as I watched it. I had seen the second movie in theaters back in my junior or senior year of High School, so maybe that ruined the suspense in the movie for me, but I just overall did not enjoy it. And here I thought that a completely pointless violent film was just was I after, but the lack of suspense and surprise just ruined it for me. Anyway, both Cube and Lost Highway were immensely entertaining, and my brain now feels all sorts of squishy and raw from the severe beating it received from these two movies.
Now, first let me mention that if you've ever read and enjoyed 1984, then you should most likely read We. I have yet to finish it, but I can already tell these were two books written for each other and separated at birth -- so there's that. And now let me say that as I was going to Amazon to get some links for the previous books, I ended up buying The Crying of Lot 49 and White Noise. Son of a bitch.
I'm sorry. Daddy didn't mean to yell at you; it's not even your fault. Daddy is just angry. Here, honey, enjoy my special Valentine's Day Card just for you. I love you.
Over the course of this weekend, namely Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I wrote the first six pages of what will most likely result in the first chapter of Paradise. These pages turned out far better than I think I could've ever even hoped for, and that's just about all I can say. Anyway, here are my linkies for the first six pages of the first chapter (it's not completed yet): DOC and PDF. Word on the street is that it isn't all that terrible. As per the norm, if you'd like to make any comments about it, I'd prefer that you e-mail me, but leaving a comment to this entry is also perfectly acceptable.
I think that pretty much covers it.
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| Wednesday, January 25, 2006 |
| What's With That? | 
Posted - 1/25/2006 4:06:46 PM | Nice to see that you silly GDNet'ers don't mind my complete mass of rambling. The reason I posted the previous entry is because I had read a comment in a post from late last year that encouraged me to keep on posting here. So while I can absolutely guarantee that you won't be learning anything programming-related, I'll still keep the game-related stuff coming. As well as a whole lot of other random ramblings. heart.
I do apologize for my continued procrastination on that silly top-ten list. Honestly, I'll get around to finishing it eventually but as for now I'm on this relaxation kick where I want to get back from class, go running for a while, maybe lift a few ridiculously miniscule weights, come back, do some necessary homework, and then… Relax. You'd think the idea that there are only two more game articles for me to flesh out would make the idea of finishing it a lot more appealing, but these are the top two; an article of such epic proportions deserves more than an aggressive "let me finally frickin' finish it" hand taken to it. So, yeah, word up to that.
One thing I want to bring up right now is to say just how amazed I am at how well the American version of The Office has turned out. The first episode of the American version was pretty much a joke-for-joke retelling of the British first episode, and it bombed, but every episode after that has gotten continually better. It has actually gotten to the point now where I actually prefer the American version of the show to the British one; partially because the awkward humor has gotten to the point where it's actually painful to witness the scenes take place, and then partially simply because the relationship between Jim and Pam is simply fantastic. Every episode advanced their romantic relationship (or takes it a step back) by such small steps that it's one of the most "believable" TV relationships that I've ever seen. Plus, and this is primarily a personal reason, but the way Jim handles his relationship with Pam is almost creepy in how I handle pretty much every relationship. Yeah, okay, Akamu -- we know. I'm a "wuss." "Just ask the girl out." Yadda, yadda, yadda, so on and so forth into eternity. Go to Hell.
Now a repost of the story from yesterday: Paradise - Introduction (DOC or PDF). Once again I'll say that it's got some "graphic content" and PG-13 level swearing, so if you're little or squeamish of any sort, best stay away. I really like the direction this story is going in my head, even if the introduction isn't really any kind of indication as to what I have in mind, and I can't wait to start fleshing it out a bit more in text. I finished up a few sketches of some stuff tonight, namely the Paradise itself, which as of right now is a 2x1 mile fallout shelter "community" complete with all the necessities to get a fairly large number of families (I'm aiming for the size to be enough for 6,000 people, no idea how many "main" characters there will be yet) up and running in this well thought-out and constructed post-nuclear shelter world. I'd be smart to research some basic information on city planning and civic concerns, but I think I'll just write what I have in mind and let the violent outrages of angry readers correct my wrongdoing when the time comes.
Overall the book/novella is a very ambitious project, and I don't have the best record for actually finishing this kind of stuff (then again, maybe I do), but I have to write a decent amount of material for my Creative Writing class this semester, and I have a fairly open summer, so who knows. We'll find out together, I suppose.
In other news, The Hills Have Eyes and Slither are both coming out in March, so if you're dying for a place to take me for my birthday on March 11 (or you want to postpone it until later in March, I guess it's your call), there you go. And being that I'm turning 21 this year, I'm already taking names for a string of "bar partners" with whom I will go into a bar with, order a beer, drink and be merry, and then be on my way with. Now, obviously, such an undertaking can only be done once a day, so as of now I'll probably be hitting the bars once a day in this fashion for a solid couple of weeks to fulfill all my promises. I'll also need to out-do myself on St. Patrick's Day this year, just to keep with tradition. Yeah, Mike, I'm looking at you.
Another thing I just came in contact with just as I was writing this is the website for Keith Schofield, who apparently uses old video games as a basis for shooting some music videos (the E.T. one in particular). While the music may not be your thing, the videos themselves are pretty damn cool. Definitely something well above the independent aura I had been expecting. And, yeah, that E.T. Atari game was terrible beyond comprehension. Absolutely. Terrible.
While I'm on the run of posting links, I might as well mention the Fear of Girls a short indie film about the ridiculously dedicated nerds who play custom-written RPG's. One involves a palace of whores, or something. There are also such memorable quotes as "Dougdoug is pretty much to be dropped right into the fiery pit of hell!" and "MERCY? YOU WANTED MERCY? I'M CHAOTIC NEUTRAL. GAAAAAAAAAAH." Truly hilarious whether or not you have any idea what the real-life basis for it is. I think I've had friends in the past that actually bared a not-so-minor resemblance to the guys the short. This… Makes me all sorts of sad.
And now I'll close with this final thought: what's with the good college girls having boyfriends? I mean, seriously. What's with that?
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| I Can Be Such a Girl | 
Posted - 1/25/2006 2:14:59 AM | I'm going to try and finish up that goddamn list soon-ish, but given my current schooling situation, I'm finding it a bit hard to write a semi "professional" (haha) article. Though things should cool down a bit later this week, so hopefully Thursday and Friday/Saturday will lead me in the direction of articles #2 and #1. Until then, though, it's just emo blog-boy back on the scene.
School has been kind of a painful mistress lately. And not just any painful mistress, no sir, we're talking like a body-building dominatrix mistress here; we're talking top of the line temptress of torture and pain. And, while I speak only words about how painful it is, I must now speak the joy and happiness which this pain imparts upon my mind and soul. My classes, three of the four anyway, are simply the bestest I've ever had. My Spanish 102 class is the bright sunshine of my day, filling me with happiness and ecstasy which only a low-level Spanish course could (though, to be honest, it's not quite as fun as last semester, but that's just emotional semantics, really) — and the eye candy helps too. And then I have an English class devoted entirely to the study of quality Science Fiction books (War of the Worlds, Frankenstein, and such); the class professor is also one of the most entertaining and intelligent teachers I've ever had. Watching that man go seamlessly from common English word to its far origins in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, etc. is, to say the least, frightening. There's also my Literature from 1660-1860 class which, although has an amazing professor, has some of the most difficult reading I've ever been assigned. I mean, I've read programming books that were easier to read than some of this stuff.
And then, of course, there's my new Creative Writing class, which is only once a week (sadface) for a nice three-hour chunk of time. It's still an ubertacularly incredible class, though. There are a lot of fun readings, being "forced" to write two-three pages of fiction a week, and so on. This brings me to the point I've been slowly been working my way up to making, which is to say that I now have a four page "introduction" for a new book-thing which I have, thus far, titled Paradise. A lot of fun murders, psychologically disturbed main characters, religious overtones, and everything else I'm generally known for in my writing; however, this time I'm going to be changing things up a bit since I'm aiming for an unusually ambitious project for the story. All of my normally disturbing tales will now be taking place in a post-nuclear "fallout community" of roughly three thousand residents which, brace yourself, is titled "Paradise" (Providence five miles ahead, obviously). There are going to be a number of other such "communities" throughout the country/world, all with equally hopeful names but, really, who gives a frick about them? Also, I may actually decide to add in some kind of love interest into this one, which is something I've generally omitted from any of my recent "serious" stuff. All… Two or three of them. Yes, versatile is the name of my game.
Now then, here's the five page introduction (1.5 line spacing, yayforme) to Paradise, which may have very little to do with the actual storyline, but it's here for a reason, and we'll all find out what its purpose is. Together… Wow, yeah, that sounded pretty bad. And, as a final stall before I give the link, I'll warn you that it fairly graphic towards the end, and the language, although mild for me, is still enough for a "risqué" PG-13 movie. Now, here it is (the general link, anyway) in DOC and PDF form. I'll continually update the general directory whenever something new comes along, as well as posting the update in some form in an entry. I'm also keeping a fairly titanic notebook around me which I continually add and jot down little sketches and notes for whenever I get an idea. If you have any feedback, just leave a comment here, or e-mail me at your discretion.
It feels so odd to be taking a full course load, slightly more than the twelve "full-time" credits that I'm used to, but aside from the increased work load, I've been managing to keep myself fairly well occupied. I run a couple miles on the outdoor track behind our nearest gym, while also doing some fairly minimal lifting afterwards, and I've been doing a pretty good job of "eating healthy" as well. So I'm just proud on all ends of that whole thing; although I am slightly mystified as to how I've almost worked my way back down to 160lbs, which is near to, if not meeting, the lowest weight I've ever been since I hit six foot. So, yeah, that's just all sorts of special. Most importantly to me, though, is just how… "Therapeutic" it has been. If the situation occurs where I feel the need to lash out violently at people with spiked whips, I'll just go for a nice run and I'll come back lovingly embracing the world in one big hug. It's good fun, to be sure.
And I think that's just about it for tonight. I'll enjoy me some more War of the Worlds before I smeep.
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The entries in this journal have all been posted, along with many more, at mittens' personal site at www.polycat.net.
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