When Halloween rolls around there's a usual regime I follow-Tim Burton movies (Nightmare before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow) and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Depending on time I sometimes get the original classic with Bela Lugosi.
The Original:
I've always been a Dracula fan. I don't really say I'm a vampire fan, but just a Dracula fan. It's part of the reason all my vampires in Phoenix follow Dracula rules (stakes, crosses etc.). I've always liked Bela Lugosi's role in Dracula, and the 1950s original mostly because of what it stands for, but I've never once found it really creepy. It's mostly that after you hear so many vampires with widow's peaks and Hungarian accents seeing the man who started that whole tradition is pretty cool. It's a good movie, but I never really regard it as my favorite because it strays so far away from the original novel. I'm not dogging the movie, most people think if a movie goes away from the novel it sucks. Most of the time that's true, but I think Dracula is that rare exception where it's an ok movie by itself.
It's just not scary, I watch it for what it is, I still want to know how people get creeped by this. Though it is spooky. This is back when horror films didn't rely on making you jump five feet in the air, but rather a spooky atmosphere, which in my opinion is a better movie.
Bram Stoker's Dracula:
A lot of people have dogged this movie, and for the longest time I never really knew why. Dracula is one of my favorite novels ever. While I never draw much inspiration from Stoker's prose, or his writing style, I still think it's one of the best gothic horrors and best books ever written. I usually have Dracula on in the background while I'm doing something else like writing or making dinnner. I watch the key parts, but I've seen this so many times I just never have a need to sit down and watch it. I finally sat down to watch it after God knows how long and after one sitting I just realised something-
It's boring.
It suffers a lot of what I gripe about the novel (despite it being my favorite). The best part of the movie is the best part of the book-Jonathan Harker's journal and his travel to Transylvania . That entire group of chapters/scenes is easily the best part. For those of you who haven't read it, it's all about Harker going into Transylvania and meeting the count. In the original 1950s version Harker was replaced by Reinfield and while the travel there was pretty dead on-once the two enter the castle situations are totally different.
The book describes this massive castle with hallways and cobwebs. It's a very empty feeling you get reading about it. It feels like nothing is there, and during the day when Harker is awake (or night when Drac is nowhere to be found) without Dracula there, it feels very lonely and desolate. Harker eventually realises it's a prison just for him, but by then you feel like you know the layout of the area. It culminates both book and movie (Bram Stoker's) with Harker falling into the ocean hoping to find his fiance. It's amazing.
That feeling is nowhere to be found in the movie. While I love the costume and the castle they made, they should have added 3 minutes of Harker exploring before him and The Count have some social problems. The fall into the ocean is delayed rather so Harker could have the gypsies offer some kinky undead sex and watch an infant get devoured (which is a good choice). It just felt different, like something was missing.
From there the movie gets incredibly boring. There's good scenes that add tension, but they do a terrible job explaining things. In the book, Harker finds Dracula as a young man very early on and can't figure it out. In the movie, Dracula shows up as a young guy and it's a bit difficult to grasp what just happened or is happening (another point to add 3 minutes of Harker exploring and he finds this). Lucy's rape by Dracula, his morph into wolf, just...everything, it happens so fast and without any time to guess or say "wait, what?" (the novel does this a few times too) that it really gets annoying.
I realised Bram Stoker's Dracula is just a collection of scenes from the book, made easy to follow by someone who read or knows the plot. If you sat down to watch this movie without knowing a thing-you'd be lost and bored after the castle scenes. That my friends is a problematic movie. It sucks because I still like this movie, I LIKE it. I don't think it's bad, but it's average. It follows the novel better than any of the others, but that's not really saying much.
It's obvious if they make another Dracula movie to follow the novel-it needs to be 3 hours. There's no way around it. We need a 3 and a half hour movie to tell this story. There's so many rules and so mcuh to figure out it's the only way. SLim it to two hours and you get this-a choppy animation, very unexplainable, pretty, mess. If you haven't seen this, I recommend it. It's good for what it is-a strange and weird vampire movie.
But while it gets nearly unwatchable for first time viewers, it's very similar in style to the novel where it's hard to follow in some parts, and the scenes following the excellent Castle/guest scenes just pale in comparison. In fact, if you read just the first 60 pages of Dracula, and nothing else, you'd be satisfied. I love it, I love Dracula just cuz he's a badass.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The BCS is a joke.
We'll do a sports note, if you don't mind. I don't go into sports much here, because outside of the NFL, I never care.
At least that was till this season. Let me state some facts here: I hate college football. It's a joke, plain and simple. The BCS is a night club with the SEC and Big-12 on the guest list and they won't let anyone (WAC) because that building is "full capacity." It's a money thing, but the bottom line is that the big conferences don't want equality, or a little school going in and kicking their asses (read: 07' Fiesta Bowl).
I also hate Boise State. It's a good reason, I received a degree from the University of Idaho. We hate the Broncos, in fact just about every rivalry game we have results in brawls in the parking lot. Fuck Boise State.
But since I hate Boise State doesn't mean I can't hate what Boise State Football is standing for. I'll admit, I'm swept up in the bandwagon. I want BSU to do well, even if it means beating us (Vandals) to get there, it's good for college football. I agree some of this hype is blown out of proportion, and that BSU may be slightly overrated, but I accept that on a neutral feild they could take anyone.
So could TCU, and probably Utah. But we'll get to that in a second.
The only way the BCS is going to change is if the NCAA steps in and puts a stop to it. Either that or we get the feds involved. It's very well documented that a Utah senator started filing stuff saying the BCS violated Federal Anti-Trust laws among other things, only to get a statement from the BCS President saying something along the lines of, "The BCS has done nothing wrong. We have done everything according to our specifications."
Didn't Roger Clemens say something like that when the feds went after him for steroids? What was the end of that tale?
Anyways. It's obvious that the BCS is in deep shit. In the 1960s, this system would have worked. There was only 10 or 15 good teams in the whole country. But not in 2010, there are too many great teams in this country, in different conferences for them to blacklist them from a championship game. I give it a few more years and things will change, but it may be too late for me to care then.
I hoped BSU would be the shining horse to do it. If BSU were to go undefeated, get invited to the National Championship, there would be widespread bitching in the southern states, which would end in a playoff. It would happen if BSU won, which they could do against the teams in 2010, there isn't anyone that good. Oregon? Are you kidding me? They are beatable, just look at what an unranked USC did last night, they didn't win, but they showed that it's possible.
So it looked great. BSU went in and beat Virginia Tech at the start of the season, for all intents and purposes, in their house, and returned to Idaho with a win against a top ranked team. Now for a team like Virginiat Tech, that's a loss very difficult to recover from. Especially when the Broncos let you score 17 unanswered points and have victory in your grasp, only for Chris Peterson to snatch it in the final drive of the game. So Virgina Tech lost to a no name school the next week and dropped in the rankings which now HURTS BSU (what?).
BSU stayed at No. 3, it got annoying when they kept having teams jump to No. 1 over them, (Auburn, Ohio State, Oklahoma) but they showed their stuff and it sort of made sense.
Then Oregon leap-frogged BSU. Keep in mind they had the same roster last year that they have this year. And last year, Oregon showed up on the Blue Turf and got pwned. Blount punched a BSU player who wouldn't shut his face and we all know how that ended. Again, annoying, but we can let it pass.
Now it's ridiculous. TCU has just jumped to the No. 3 spot over BSU. Now TCU helps my cause cuz they are in the same position as BSU-a non-automatic qualifying school, but it doesn't help what's right in the system. All off-season we're hearing about how things are carried over, how they need to look at things last season as they figure out rankings this season. Any relevance to it? I would hope so, since several key figures said this on ESPN.
But if there is a look at last season how does Oregon jump BSU? Strength of schedule. Ok, we can give them that. Oregon has punked some good schools and they are the team to beat. THey arn't that great of a team, but I'll give them that. But TCU? Flashback: Fiesta Bowl 09' TCU got owned by Boise State. TCU fell victim to the trick plays, excellent coaching, and hornets nest defense that is the Boise State Broncos, and looked really fucking good doing it. I'm saying TCU played pretty damn well in the Fiesta Bowl. So why, oh why, is a roster that is virtually unchanged ahead of BSU?
Because this system is archaic. TCU should be behind Boise State and they can't beat the Broncos again. Really, I just don't see it happening. Make matters worse, they are No. 3 and BSU is No. 4 leaving us with another bowl game between TCU and BSU, the third one in five years. Wonderful, can't wait to watch that again. Does anyone remember how people got sick of the Rose Bowl a few years back because it was USC v Penn State? Yeah, point exactly.
But we'll never know. Why? because they can't do a playoff. Why won't they do a playoff? Money, plain and simple. To institute a playoff, even an eight team playoff with champions from across conferences (and maybe some wild cards for the independants and unknown division 1A schools). would cost money, they'd have to slash some games fromt he season, and they would be games where teams like Florida hosted Rice for a slaughterfest. Both of those schools make a pile of cash from those games, so they can't toss those.
The whole season is no longer BSU vs the big schools, it's what's right and wrong about the system. TCU doesn't deserve to be there. BSU beat them and probably could still beat them. The only thing BSU has left is Hawaii (a decent team on their own) and Nevada (which can be a solid win if Nevada can go up a few more spots). I am for what BSU is doing which is opening the doors for other schools like my Idaho Vandals (who would never get a shot in the current system) I am not for the way things are going. TCU going to number three shows how ridiculous this whole thing is, it's partly to set the stage for another BSU/TCU bowl game, but it's also so stupid that they hypocritically screw BSU out of their shot. BSU is the better team, TCU isn't. It's also making me wonder if they are setting up the fall man if one of the smaller schools should go to the National Championship-TCU would lose, BSU wouldn't. If TCU loses, the BCS could stick around, BSU wins-they got a lot of explaining to do.
The bottom line is, this whole thing is stupid. BSU fans shouldn't be getting pissed about it because contrary to what analysists will tell you or what you read, it's all political, and it's all designed to draw money. Why do you think the FIesta Bowl took one for the team last year and put the two small schools into the same game?
It only proves my point. The BCS is setting everything up for a National Championship that isn't BSU. They dont' want BSU there. They don't want TCU or Utah there, but they'll put them there if they have to cuz TCU and Utah will get the shit kicked out of them while BSU will hang on.
Fuck the BCS, just don't watch it. I dunno if I made a point in any of this, but that's what I think.
Go Vandals!
At least that was till this season. Let me state some facts here: I hate college football. It's a joke, plain and simple. The BCS is a night club with the SEC and Big-12 on the guest list and they won't let anyone (WAC) because that building is "full capacity." It's a money thing, but the bottom line is that the big conferences don't want equality, or a little school going in and kicking their asses (read: 07' Fiesta Bowl).
I also hate Boise State. It's a good reason, I received a degree from the University of Idaho. We hate the Broncos, in fact just about every rivalry game we have results in brawls in the parking lot. Fuck Boise State.
But since I hate Boise State doesn't mean I can't hate what Boise State Football is standing for. I'll admit, I'm swept up in the bandwagon. I want BSU to do well, even if it means beating us (Vandals) to get there, it's good for college football. I agree some of this hype is blown out of proportion, and that BSU may be slightly overrated, but I accept that on a neutral feild they could take anyone.
So could TCU, and probably Utah. But we'll get to that in a second.
The only way the BCS is going to change is if the NCAA steps in and puts a stop to it. Either that or we get the feds involved. It's very well documented that a Utah senator started filing stuff saying the BCS violated Federal Anti-Trust laws among other things, only to get a statement from the BCS President saying something along the lines of, "The BCS has done nothing wrong. We have done everything according to our specifications."
Didn't Roger Clemens say something like that when the feds went after him for steroids? What was the end of that tale?
Anyways. It's obvious that the BCS is in deep shit. In the 1960s, this system would have worked. There was only 10 or 15 good teams in the whole country. But not in 2010, there are too many great teams in this country, in different conferences for them to blacklist them from a championship game. I give it a few more years and things will change, but it may be too late for me to care then.
I hoped BSU would be the shining horse to do it. If BSU were to go undefeated, get invited to the National Championship, there would be widespread bitching in the southern states, which would end in a playoff. It would happen if BSU won, which they could do against the teams in 2010, there isn't anyone that good. Oregon? Are you kidding me? They are beatable, just look at what an unranked USC did last night, they didn't win, but they showed that it's possible.
So it looked great. BSU went in and beat Virginia Tech at the start of the season, for all intents and purposes, in their house, and returned to Idaho with a win against a top ranked team. Now for a team like Virginiat Tech, that's a loss very difficult to recover from. Especially when the Broncos let you score 17 unanswered points and have victory in your grasp, only for Chris Peterson to snatch it in the final drive of the game. So Virgina Tech lost to a no name school the next week and dropped in the rankings which now HURTS BSU (what?).
BSU stayed at No. 3, it got annoying when they kept having teams jump to No. 1 over them, (Auburn, Ohio State, Oklahoma) but they showed their stuff and it sort of made sense.
Then Oregon leap-frogged BSU. Keep in mind they had the same roster last year that they have this year. And last year, Oregon showed up on the Blue Turf and got pwned. Blount punched a BSU player who wouldn't shut his face and we all know how that ended. Again, annoying, but we can let it pass.
Now it's ridiculous. TCU has just jumped to the No. 3 spot over BSU. Now TCU helps my cause cuz they are in the same position as BSU-a non-automatic qualifying school, but it doesn't help what's right in the system. All off-season we're hearing about how things are carried over, how they need to look at things last season as they figure out rankings this season. Any relevance to it? I would hope so, since several key figures said this on ESPN.
But if there is a look at last season how does Oregon jump BSU? Strength of schedule. Ok, we can give them that. Oregon has punked some good schools and they are the team to beat. THey arn't that great of a team, but I'll give them that. But TCU? Flashback: Fiesta Bowl 09' TCU got owned by Boise State. TCU fell victim to the trick plays, excellent coaching, and hornets nest defense that is the Boise State Broncos, and looked really fucking good doing it. I'm saying TCU played pretty damn well in the Fiesta Bowl. So why, oh why, is a roster that is virtually unchanged ahead of BSU?
Because this system is archaic. TCU should be behind Boise State and they can't beat the Broncos again. Really, I just don't see it happening. Make matters worse, they are No. 3 and BSU is No. 4 leaving us with another bowl game between TCU and BSU, the third one in five years. Wonderful, can't wait to watch that again. Does anyone remember how people got sick of the Rose Bowl a few years back because it was USC v Penn State? Yeah, point exactly.
But we'll never know. Why? because they can't do a playoff. Why won't they do a playoff? Money, plain and simple. To institute a playoff, even an eight team playoff with champions from across conferences (and maybe some wild cards for the independants and unknown division 1A schools). would cost money, they'd have to slash some games fromt he season, and they would be games where teams like Florida hosted Rice for a slaughterfest. Both of those schools make a pile of cash from those games, so they can't toss those.
The whole season is no longer BSU vs the big schools, it's what's right and wrong about the system. TCU doesn't deserve to be there. BSU beat them and probably could still beat them. The only thing BSU has left is Hawaii (a decent team on their own) and Nevada (which can be a solid win if Nevada can go up a few more spots). I am for what BSU is doing which is opening the doors for other schools like my Idaho Vandals (who would never get a shot in the current system) I am not for the way things are going. TCU going to number three shows how ridiculous this whole thing is, it's partly to set the stage for another BSU/TCU bowl game, but it's also so stupid that they hypocritically screw BSU out of their shot. BSU is the better team, TCU isn't. It's also making me wonder if they are setting up the fall man if one of the smaller schools should go to the National Championship-TCU would lose, BSU wouldn't. If TCU loses, the BCS could stick around, BSU wins-they got a lot of explaining to do.
The bottom line is, this whole thing is stupid. BSU fans shouldn't be getting pissed about it because contrary to what analysists will tell you or what you read, it's all political, and it's all designed to draw money. Why do you think the FIesta Bowl took one for the team last year and put the two small schools into the same game?
It only proves my point. The BCS is setting everything up for a National Championship that isn't BSU. They dont' want BSU there. They don't want TCU or Utah there, but they'll put them there if they have to cuz TCU and Utah will get the shit kicked out of them while BSU will hang on.
Fuck the BCS, just don't watch it. I dunno if I made a point in any of this, but that's what I think.
Go Vandals!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Final Fantasy...the Playstation releases.
So I did a marathon of sorts for the last few months trying to play through the PS1 installments of Final Fantasy. These were probably the more memorable ones because people were playing RPGs and I could actually talk storylines with them. In a decade since setting the controller down on these though, I can look at them with differet opinions. There's no denying that all three of them (even IX) outdo the PS2 installments, and there is no denying that they are games you'd play again. Here's my thoughts on each one, years after their release. I'll post VIII and IX later...
Final Fantasy VII: It's not overrated, period. FFVII still holds up well today and it makes me laugh that Square Enix is feeding us this dogshit that remaking this would be too much money/too many resources. Sure it would, but you'd get that money back by your fanbase that has in unison said you need to make it.
Note to Tetsuya Nomura: Less is more, look at your designs here. The character designs in FFVII are without a doubt, his best. Cloud and Sephiroth are simple, yet detailed. Vincent doesn't have an overabundance of zippers on his clothes, and Tifa, despite her top-heaviness is a good design. The graphics took a bit to get used to again, but that was just the in-game. Those pre-rendered backgrounds continue to hold up and are always pretty.
I'd be lying if I said Phoenix doesn't open the same way FFVII did, and rightly so, my novel was me trying to do a story in Midgar...but since I don't own the rights to it, I made the continent of North America Midgar. FFVII's story is its strong suit, but it has a few kinks. For one thing, a decade ago, I got turned off on the second half of disc one just traveling the world map in pursuit of Sephiroth, and it's no different here. They just insert party members with a storyline blurb and keep you moving. All of this could have been cut and the characters could have stayed in Midgar for a much longer time. Midgar IS FFVII. I agree with what Pat R on SMPS.net said where it would have been a lot more disorienting if Cloud and co were locked in the city a bit longer. I wanted to explore that city.
Sephiroth wasn't exacatly hated by me, but he got the job done. I felt more sorry for him than anything because it wasn't his fault he went insane, but I hated the Shinra Co. for their shananigans in the whole shindig.
Cloud in itself is the posterchild for main characters. From the moment he steps on the screen and says "I don't care what your names are" he's in control and he's intriguing to keep you going. While I hate the fact his storyline ends towards the middle of disc 2, up to that point he makes FFVII. That and his sword is awesome (again, LESS IS MORE).
Finally the combat. This game felt like a SNES FF game with a fresh coat of paint-and the battle system really never got broken. Yes, some materia combos made the game easier, but it wasn't near as ridiculous as the Junction system and being able to kill bosses in three hits by hour 3. FFVII can still kill you if you'r e not careful, though it's rare. Furthermore, I'm always compelled to DO EVERYTHING in each playthrough of the game...well minus chocobo breeding.
Overall, I liked Final Fantasy VII. I still like it. My favorite Final Fantasy is tied between IV and VI, but FFVII is my second favorite game of all time. If you still haven't picked it up-go give it a whirl, you'll be happy about it.
Final Fantasy VII: It's not overrated, period. FFVII still holds up well today and it makes me laugh that Square Enix is feeding us this dogshit that remaking this would be too much money/too many resources. Sure it would, but you'd get that money back by your fanbase that has in unison said you need to make it.
Note to Tetsuya Nomura: Less is more, look at your designs here. The character designs in FFVII are without a doubt, his best. Cloud and Sephiroth are simple, yet detailed. Vincent doesn't have an overabundance of zippers on his clothes, and Tifa, despite her top-heaviness is a good design. The graphics took a bit to get used to again, but that was just the in-game. Those pre-rendered backgrounds continue to hold up and are always pretty.
I'd be lying if I said Phoenix doesn't open the same way FFVII did, and rightly so, my novel was me trying to do a story in Midgar...but since I don't own the rights to it, I made the continent of North America Midgar. FFVII's story is its strong suit, but it has a few kinks. For one thing, a decade ago, I got turned off on the second half of disc one just traveling the world map in pursuit of Sephiroth, and it's no different here. They just insert party members with a storyline blurb and keep you moving. All of this could have been cut and the characters could have stayed in Midgar for a much longer time. Midgar IS FFVII. I agree with what Pat R on SMPS.net said where it would have been a lot more disorienting if Cloud and co were locked in the city a bit longer. I wanted to explore that city.
Sephiroth wasn't exacatly hated by me, but he got the job done. I felt more sorry for him than anything because it wasn't his fault he went insane, but I hated the Shinra Co. for their shananigans in the whole shindig.
Cloud in itself is the posterchild for main characters. From the moment he steps on the screen and says "I don't care what your names are" he's in control and he's intriguing to keep you going. While I hate the fact his storyline ends towards the middle of disc 2, up to that point he makes FFVII. That and his sword is awesome (again, LESS IS MORE).
Finally the combat. This game felt like a SNES FF game with a fresh coat of paint-and the battle system really never got broken. Yes, some materia combos made the game easier, but it wasn't near as ridiculous as the Junction system and being able to kill bosses in three hits by hour 3. FFVII can still kill you if you'r e not careful, though it's rare. Furthermore, I'm always compelled to DO EVERYTHING in each playthrough of the game...well minus chocobo breeding.
Overall, I liked Final Fantasy VII. I still like it. My favorite Final Fantasy is tied between IV and VI, but FFVII is my second favorite game of all time. If you still haven't picked it up-go give it a whirl, you'll be happy about it.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Fantasy Football Teams
I'm in two leagues as I said. One league is an automated draft that gave me Joe Flacco, and through trades awarded me Reggie Wayne, but as of now is benched with Aaron Rodgers. I did the big one, the big, trash talking, hating, out of control draft last night. Here's my Team:
QB: Drew Brees, Matt Ryan (Backup)
RB: Cedric Benson, Ronnie Brown, Pierre Thomas, LaDanien Tomlinson
WR: Reggie Wayne, Devin Hester, Jericho Cotchery, T.J. Houshmandzadeh
TE: Vernon Davis, Tony Gonzalas
K: Garret Hartley
Defense: Saints and Titans
Running backs, as usual, were drafted crazy from the beginning. I was pick 4 in the draft and rather than take an RB, I put my money onto Drew Brees immediatly. I dominated with him last year, and pending a Madden curse, expect him to come near his amazing season last year. When my turn came up in the third round, Cedric Benson was the best availible, so I bit the bullet for him.
So I got a decent QB and an overrated RB, but I think Benson could do well this year. With Ochocinco and Owens around, Benson could get the ball more for that reason alone just to throw defenses off. He's a wild-card and overrated, but he very well could deliver.
As far as Ronnie Brown, one word: Wildcat. If Brown can stay healthy and uninjured, he will be putting up points since Miami loves using that formation.
Pierre Thomas will be good. I think this year with the increased workload (as a starter if his work wasn't enough) he will be going places this year. While Brees will want to pass the ball, Thomas works well in goal line situations and he was a steal as late as I got him.
LT...well I took him late in the 9th round I believe, and I thought that was a steal. If he can do what I hope he does with the Jets, he could be flat awesome, or he could suck. I"m not starting him this week since he's a wildcard, but after this we'll know.
I took Reggie Wayne in the second round because I thought he was a steal. Peyton Manning loves throwing to Wayne and the guy loves catching passes. Wayne will be downright nasty this year and I'm surprised he didn't go in the first round.
I'm weak on WR besides that. Hester and T.J. are sort of a "wait and see"guys. T.J. In particular could be awesome on that Baltimore offense, but we'll have to see it first.
The cool part about my league is we have a WR/TE flex posiiton so when I realised we were weak on WR, and Tony Gonzalas was availible, I took him instead of a WR. Vernon Davis is a no brainer, I picked him 3rd last year because I had no clue who to take and he put up mad points on my team. I took him again out of spite and Gonzalas for a double team. I dunno about two tight ends, but if I'm doing it-these are the two to do it with.
I was planning on getting the Jets defense early, but someone took it earlier, so I was screwed. I went for the Ravens, but again someone grabbed it just before me. I settled on the Saints and think it was a good choice. That defense is nasty and a decent alternative to Baltimore and NY's tribe they got running this year.
Overall I think I did pretty well, hopefully Brees doesn't get fucked over by the Cowboys when I'm in the playoffs this year so I can actually win.
CHAMPIONSHIP!!!
QB: Drew Brees, Matt Ryan (Backup)
RB: Cedric Benson, Ronnie Brown, Pierre Thomas, LaDanien Tomlinson
WR: Reggie Wayne, Devin Hester, Jericho Cotchery, T.J. Houshmandzadeh
TE: Vernon Davis, Tony Gonzalas
K: Garret Hartley
Defense: Saints and Titans
Running backs, as usual, were drafted crazy from the beginning. I was pick 4 in the draft and rather than take an RB, I put my money onto Drew Brees immediatly. I dominated with him last year, and pending a Madden curse, expect him to come near his amazing season last year. When my turn came up in the third round, Cedric Benson was the best availible, so I bit the bullet for him.
So I got a decent QB and an overrated RB, but I think Benson could do well this year. With Ochocinco and Owens around, Benson could get the ball more for that reason alone just to throw defenses off. He's a wild-card and overrated, but he very well could deliver.
As far as Ronnie Brown, one word: Wildcat. If Brown can stay healthy and uninjured, he will be putting up points since Miami loves using that formation.
Pierre Thomas will be good. I think this year with the increased workload (as a starter if his work wasn't enough) he will be going places this year. While Brees will want to pass the ball, Thomas works well in goal line situations and he was a steal as late as I got him.
LT...well I took him late in the 9th round I believe, and I thought that was a steal. If he can do what I hope he does with the Jets, he could be flat awesome, or he could suck. I"m not starting him this week since he's a wildcard, but after this we'll know.
I took Reggie Wayne in the second round because I thought he was a steal. Peyton Manning loves throwing to Wayne and the guy loves catching passes. Wayne will be downright nasty this year and I'm surprised he didn't go in the first round.
I'm weak on WR besides that. Hester and T.J. are sort of a "wait and see"guys. T.J. In particular could be awesome on that Baltimore offense, but we'll have to see it first.
The cool part about my league is we have a WR/TE flex posiiton so when I realised we were weak on WR, and Tony Gonzalas was availible, I took him instead of a WR. Vernon Davis is a no brainer, I picked him 3rd last year because I had no clue who to take and he put up mad points on my team. I took him again out of spite and Gonzalas for a double team. I dunno about two tight ends, but if I'm doing it-these are the two to do it with.
I was planning on getting the Jets defense early, but someone took it earlier, so I was screwed. I went for the Ravens, but again someone grabbed it just before me. I settled on the Saints and think it was a good choice. That defense is nasty and a decent alternative to Baltimore and NY's tribe they got running this year.
Overall I think I did pretty well, hopefully Brees doesn't get fucked over by the Cowboys when I'm in the playoffs this year so I can actually win.
CHAMPIONSHIP!!!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Fantasy Football, and how Pat got screwed.
Not known on my blog, but known from close friends. I'm a 49ers fan. Always have been. From the 49ers as my top tier, the next two teams just beneath it are the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. From there, I got teams I like and don't like but it's all depending on the game. And yes, I do like the Raiders, which is bad as an SF fan, but it was long after the battle of the bay took it's toll. The two teams really have no rivalry now, and even Raiders fans like the niners and vice versa (or so I'm told). I don't like Tom Cable coaching them cuz he messed up my alma mater, but that's another story.
So I like the 49ers...who don't I like? The Packers. I hate hate hate hate Packers. Fuck you Packers. beating us in the playoffs every single year with Favre having refs kiss his ass on STUPID calls. The moment SF does it to you (The Catch II) you start bitching and moaning cuz the roles are reversed. Beyond Packers, I hate Brett Favre and the Brett Favre Team (when do the Minnesota Vikings come back?)Beyond that, Cowboys, Patriots and Steelers.
Cowboys is obvious, this "America's team" bullshit is more arrogant than I ever could be. Ditto for the Patriots and the cloud of arrogance and spygate that plague that team. The Steelers? Two reasons: Ben Roethlesburger (sic) and Super Bowl 40.
I may live in Seattle, but I don't really have any Seahawk memorabilia (unless you count the Miller Light Can that has the logo on it) but I cheered for them in Super Bowl 40. That game was crazy ridiculous. While I'm not whining how the Seahawks messed up every single opportunity they had (beyond those terrible calls from the refs) they did get screwed. Look at what the Steelers blatantly got away with compared to the Seahawks. Bullshit. The game was planned from the beginning. Not that it meant anything anyways-the hawks couldn't pull of a play with the gazillion opportunities they had. The two times they did were met with resistance...but they should have had a lot more blown calls.
That and Big Ben is a serial rapist (allegedly)
Ok, I'm rambling. So I hate the Steelers, Brett Favre Team, Cowboys, and the FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU GREENBAYYYYYY PACKERS!
So I am in two fantasy leagues this year. One is a random draft(because the league owner has friends all over the country and getting a scheduled manual draft would be impossible). I finally got a look at my team today...and what does the fucking automated draft leave me with?
Aaron Rodgers
Yeah, thanks a lot asshole. So I start a trade with the guy who has Drew Brees. I offer up Rodgers and a shitty wide receiver from the Brett Favre Team thinking he'd take it...cuz apparently Rodgers is gonna be SO FUCKING GOOD BUT HE SUCKED LAST YEAR DOESNT MATTER CUZ ITS GREENBAY AND RODGERS WILL RULE!!! The choice would be obvious. Instead rejection.
Oh and my wide receiver? Randy Moss. I want no part in cheering the Patriots on...ever. Luckily I got rid of Moss pretty quick, I found Reggie Wayne (who made me mad points last year) and started a trade. Moss may be the better WR, but Wayne is crazy sick when Manning is in his prime.
As for getting rid of Rodgers, well I'm going for Peyton Manning now, maybe they'll trade him up.
Thanks a lot automated draft. Give me players that I want nothing to do cheering for.
I'll give my whole team out soon. My actual draft where I choose stuff (big league) is next week. Hopefully I won't have a packer on my team.
So I like the 49ers...who don't I like? The Packers. I hate hate hate hate Packers. Fuck you Packers. beating us in the playoffs every single year with Favre having refs kiss his ass on STUPID calls. The moment SF does it to you (The Catch II) you start bitching and moaning cuz the roles are reversed. Beyond Packers, I hate Brett Favre and the Brett Favre Team (when do the Minnesota Vikings come back?)Beyond that, Cowboys, Patriots and Steelers.
Cowboys is obvious, this "America's team" bullshit is more arrogant than I ever could be. Ditto for the Patriots and the cloud of arrogance and spygate that plague that team. The Steelers? Two reasons: Ben Roethlesburger (sic) and Super Bowl 40.
I may live in Seattle, but I don't really have any Seahawk memorabilia (unless you count the Miller Light Can that has the logo on it) but I cheered for them in Super Bowl 40. That game was crazy ridiculous. While I'm not whining how the Seahawks messed up every single opportunity they had (beyond those terrible calls from the refs) they did get screwed. Look at what the Steelers blatantly got away with compared to the Seahawks. Bullshit. The game was planned from the beginning. Not that it meant anything anyways-the hawks couldn't pull of a play with the gazillion opportunities they had. The two times they did were met with resistance...but they should have had a lot more blown calls.
That and Big Ben is a serial rapist (allegedly)
Ok, I'm rambling. So I hate the Steelers, Brett Favre Team, Cowboys, and the FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU GREENBAYYYYYY PACKERS!
So I am in two fantasy leagues this year. One is a random draft(because the league owner has friends all over the country and getting a scheduled manual draft would be impossible). I finally got a look at my team today...and what does the fucking automated draft leave me with?
Aaron Rodgers
Yeah, thanks a lot asshole. So I start a trade with the guy who has Drew Brees. I offer up Rodgers and a shitty wide receiver from the Brett Favre Team thinking he'd take it...cuz apparently Rodgers is gonna be SO FUCKING GOOD BUT HE SUCKED LAST YEAR DOESNT MATTER CUZ ITS GREENBAY AND RODGERS WILL RULE!!! The choice would be obvious. Instead rejection.
Oh and my wide receiver? Randy Moss. I want no part in cheering the Patriots on...ever. Luckily I got rid of Moss pretty quick, I found Reggie Wayne (who made me mad points last year) and started a trade. Moss may be the better WR, but Wayne is crazy sick when Manning is in his prime.
As for getting rid of Rodgers, well I'm going for Peyton Manning now, maybe they'll trade him up.
Thanks a lot automated draft. Give me players that I want nothing to do cheering for.
I'll give my whole team out soon. My actual draft where I choose stuff (big league) is next week. Hopefully I won't have a packer on my team.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Street Fighter IV made me a noob.
Once in awhile, I bust out Street Fighter IV (or Super SFIV for some of you) and I have a grand ole time. A few of my friends up here play it, I usually dominate with Akuma or uh...Bison, and we have a great time. We simply beat the shit outta each other until one runs out of energy. More often than not, I'm still standing.
But I hate playing Xbox live. I still play it, but I hate it and stop after only a few matches.
Why? Because SFIV isn't fun on Xbox live. SFIV is fun against your buddies. Xbox live takes half the fun out of it-because there's usually a mound of people who only play this, sacrifice social gatherings for this, and beat the living tar out of you for it.
I only play Street Fighter as a diversion. I hold my own most of the time during parties. I don't have a drive to be as good as these guys nor do I care to play the way they do. You're probably wondering why...because most of the players on Xbox live-are cheap. Plain and simple they are cheap. They make the game unfun.
Sacrilege! "Oh no he didn't! He didn't say that!"
Yep, I did. SFIV's cheap players ruin things for me. Apparently, thanks to message boards and dicks that got insanely good at this game, saying "cheap" anywhere near SFIV's refined and flawless gameplay is a no-no. There is a way out of everything, there is a silver bullet to every cheap play-style, every annoying Guile defense...whatever.
Great! You guys spend your entire lives with one game figuring all that shit out. I'm gonna go play something else. Pathetic. Serriously, I just want to play the game and have fun, and I can't because some cheap dick who has "Fledgling Fighter" for a icon is doing annoying Guile shit (I'm not going into it-we all know what I'm talking about). This forces me to scream at the top of my lungs (cuz I hate losing), hit the arms of the couch and then go on tilt punching walls.
"Oh no Pat! You just arn't playing the game enough. There's a way around some of that shit, you just gotta play more. You're just a noob if you're saying SFIV is cheap."
Ok. I'm a noob. I'm a fucking Noob. NOOB IS ME. There, you're right, I am. Which means now I can say-your fucking game is loaded with cheap dicks that exploit it. I don't want to spend an hour figuring out how to time something against Bison perfectly only to have my opponent choose that luchador and do some other cheap move. I don't care enough to. Why can't they just fight without all this crap? Cuz they will lose.
It's funny too, I'll find people who play normal, good patterns, pokes, unpredictable behavior, but once they start losing-they get cheap. See, cuz I'm a noob I have the right to say that, so go fuck yourselves.
See, this higharchy of people learning, "character tiers" advance skills=ridiculous. It's what ruined MVC2. Where is the fun in only two traps you are going to use, that will no doubt confuse someone, unless they can come up with some repetive, annoying, CHEAP tactic to get out of it. What happened to just beating the tar out of it.
"Pat you don't play enough. You don't know what you're talking about"
You're right! I don't play enough, and guess what? I don't intend on playing more. I have too much time to learn all that shit in one game. I've got a book, a paid journalism gig, and a 40 hour week job. I don't want to waste my time learning this crap. I'm never going to play in tournaments. What glory to I get in SFIV besides unwinding every night? None. There is no bragging rights in beating someone on Xbox live.
Who's "Spoogeking083?"
"Oh I beat him last night. He had 10,000 battle points"
"Loser."
Yeah. For those of you who have played the game to the point where you know all these traps. Awesome, you are better than me, because I am forever a noob.
I don't know why people get pissed about that word anyways. Noob. Jesus, it really isn't a word anyways. Somehow people have it in high regards as the N-word when it's said. Get over it. If someone calls you a noob-it only means you've gotten laid, had a better social life, and overall had it much better than the name caller ever will. You are better for being called a noob-your life is that much better when they call you a noob.
Because typically (and I mean typically) the people who call the others noobs are people who salvage gamefaqs, scratch checks for strategy guides, and spend hours outside of their favorite game, as well as IN their favorite game. Calling you a noob only says "I spent my entire life on this and have nothing else to look forward to. You can never get to my level so don't."
Or it just means you really really suck at something and there's no hope for you. In my case-yes, apparently I do suck at SFIV, because I refuse to sit for hours and learn all these traps, salvage faqs on what to do, and basically suck the "unwinding fun" out of the game.
Noob am I. SFIV is loaded with cheap dicks. If you play SFIV and are cheap...STOP DOING IT!
The noobs appreciate it.
But I hate playing Xbox live. I still play it, but I hate it and stop after only a few matches.
Why? Because SFIV isn't fun on Xbox live. SFIV is fun against your buddies. Xbox live takes half the fun out of it-because there's usually a mound of people who only play this, sacrifice social gatherings for this, and beat the living tar out of you for it.
I only play Street Fighter as a diversion. I hold my own most of the time during parties. I don't have a drive to be as good as these guys nor do I care to play the way they do. You're probably wondering why...because most of the players on Xbox live-are cheap. Plain and simple they are cheap. They make the game unfun.
Sacrilege! "Oh no he didn't! He didn't say that!"
Yep, I did. SFIV's cheap players ruin things for me. Apparently, thanks to message boards and dicks that got insanely good at this game, saying "cheap" anywhere near SFIV's refined and flawless gameplay is a no-no. There is a way out of everything, there is a silver bullet to every cheap play-style, every annoying Guile defense...whatever.
Great! You guys spend your entire lives with one game figuring all that shit out. I'm gonna go play something else. Pathetic. Serriously, I just want to play the game and have fun, and I can't because some cheap dick who has "Fledgling Fighter" for a icon is doing annoying Guile shit (I'm not going into it-we all know what I'm talking about). This forces me to scream at the top of my lungs (cuz I hate losing), hit the arms of the couch and then go on tilt punching walls.
"Oh no Pat! You just arn't playing the game enough. There's a way around some of that shit, you just gotta play more. You're just a noob if you're saying SFIV is cheap."
Ok. I'm a noob. I'm a fucking Noob. NOOB IS ME. There, you're right, I am. Which means now I can say-your fucking game is loaded with cheap dicks that exploit it. I don't want to spend an hour figuring out how to time something against Bison perfectly only to have my opponent choose that luchador and do some other cheap move. I don't care enough to. Why can't they just fight without all this crap? Cuz they will lose.
It's funny too, I'll find people who play normal, good patterns, pokes, unpredictable behavior, but once they start losing-they get cheap. See, cuz I'm a noob I have the right to say that, so go fuck yourselves.
See, this higharchy of people learning, "character tiers" advance skills=ridiculous. It's what ruined MVC2. Where is the fun in only two traps you are going to use, that will no doubt confuse someone, unless they can come up with some repetive, annoying, CHEAP tactic to get out of it. What happened to just beating the tar out of it.
"Pat you don't play enough. You don't know what you're talking about"
You're right! I don't play enough, and guess what? I don't intend on playing more. I have too much time to learn all that shit in one game. I've got a book, a paid journalism gig, and a 40 hour week job. I don't want to waste my time learning this crap. I'm never going to play in tournaments. What glory to I get in SFIV besides unwinding every night? None. There is no bragging rights in beating someone on Xbox live.
Who's "Spoogeking083?"
"Oh I beat him last night. He had 10,000 battle points"
"Loser."
Yeah. For those of you who have played the game to the point where you know all these traps. Awesome, you are better than me, because I am forever a noob.
I don't know why people get pissed about that word anyways. Noob. Jesus, it really isn't a word anyways. Somehow people have it in high regards as the N-word when it's said. Get over it. If someone calls you a noob-it only means you've gotten laid, had a better social life, and overall had it much better than the name caller ever will. You are better for being called a noob-your life is that much better when they call you a noob.
Because typically (and I mean typically) the people who call the others noobs are people who salvage gamefaqs, scratch checks for strategy guides, and spend hours outside of their favorite game, as well as IN their favorite game. Calling you a noob only says "I spent my entire life on this and have nothing else to look forward to. You can never get to my level so don't."
Or it just means you really really suck at something and there's no hope for you. In my case-yes, apparently I do suck at SFIV, because I refuse to sit for hours and learn all these traps, salvage faqs on what to do, and basically suck the "unwinding fun" out of the game.
Noob am I. SFIV is loaded with cheap dicks. If you play SFIV and are cheap...STOP DOING IT!
The noobs appreciate it.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
There are the those with skill, and then there's this
Now, I'm not usually the guy that rubs other writers, I just don't do it. If I give the rub, they have to have done something, seen something, or commented on something that makes me want to give them the rub.
Most never do, so I never mention them in my blog. Nothing against them, I just don't do it.
http://http://www.gamesradar.com/wii/super-mario-world-virtual-console/news/insane-super-mario-world-glitch-video-helps-explain-advanced-exploits/a-20100819163329282048/g-20070228102225721044
Not the case here, Michael Grimm stumbled on what quite possibly is the most insane video I've ever seen of Super Mario World. Someone takes the fat plumber, a map editor and makes a level so hard, I wouldn't be able to take one step before I died.
This video shows a guy whose name I don't know, and probably don't care to. This guy makes a level totally dependent on glitches. You have to know how to use Mario World's glitches to survive, this includes grabbing Yoshi and jumping on/off him to get out of lava before he sinks, using the wall to grapple up to a platform, and fighting Big Boo with only moving koopa shells as the means of "floor that won't kill you when you step on it."
Un-friggen-believable. There is no way I could ever do this. I thought i was good at Mario when I beat the Star Road. I thought I was good, when I discovered "Top Secret Area." I thought I was good, until I saw this and realised that I am nothing but a peon.
Good find Mike. There is something though that makes me feel better about this. To begin, I would never even attempt mastery of such magnitude on my own time. This game is nearly two decades old, and at this point simply not worth it. I also know that there are even bigger losers than people who play WoW. I'm not kidding. The time it would take to pull what this guy pulls off, would take far more than jacking up all character classes to level 80. Not only is this guy playing a game that is past it's prime, as far as current generations go, he's also playing it to the point where it's unhealthy.
Damn, I thought beating Super Mario Bros 3 in nine minutes was an accomplishment. That compared to this, is level 1 of the original Mario. That's how simple that is to this.
Hats off to you unknown player. Mike and I can continue to realise our lives are good since yours apparently was sacrificed for nine minutes of pure awesomeness.
Most never do, so I never mention them in my blog. Nothing against them, I just don't do it.
http://http://www.gamesradar.com/wii/super-mario-world-virtual-console/news/insane-super-mario-world-glitch-video-helps-explain-advanced-exploits/a-20100819163329282048/g-20070228102225721044
Not the case here, Michael Grimm stumbled on what quite possibly is the most insane video I've ever seen of Super Mario World. Someone takes the fat plumber, a map editor and makes a level so hard, I wouldn't be able to take one step before I died.
This video shows a guy whose name I don't know, and probably don't care to. This guy makes a level totally dependent on glitches. You have to know how to use Mario World's glitches to survive, this includes grabbing Yoshi and jumping on/off him to get out of lava before he sinks, using the wall to grapple up to a platform, and fighting Big Boo with only moving koopa shells as the means of "floor that won't kill you when you step on it."
Un-friggen-believable. There is no way I could ever do this. I thought i was good at Mario when I beat the Star Road. I thought I was good, when I discovered "Top Secret Area." I thought I was good, until I saw this and realised that I am nothing but a peon.
Good find Mike. There is something though that makes me feel better about this. To begin, I would never even attempt mastery of such magnitude on my own time. This game is nearly two decades old, and at this point simply not worth it. I also know that there are even bigger losers than people who play WoW. I'm not kidding. The time it would take to pull what this guy pulls off, would take far more than jacking up all character classes to level 80. Not only is this guy playing a game that is past it's prime, as far as current generations go, he's also playing it to the point where it's unhealthy.
Damn, I thought beating Super Mario Bros 3 in nine minutes was an accomplishment. That compared to this, is level 1 of the original Mario. That's how simple that is to this.
Hats off to you unknown player. Mike and I can continue to realise our lives are good since yours apparently was sacrificed for nine minutes of pure awesomeness.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Answers to questions I never want to be asked again.
What is Genocide?
Genocide is my full-length novel. It's a fantasy set in modern day dealing with a corporation cloning a religious figure. In response Trad Jenisis sets out to find the real truth of the earth landing him in Jerusalem to uh...kill somebody.
What is The Gamer?
The Gamer is a memoir of myself growing up with the video game industry. More of a personal telling with games as the main subject matter, I show just how nerds were before GTAIII showed up and I realised I wasn't hardcore anymore.
What is Phoenix?
Phoenix is my second novel detailing a futuristic North America and vampires living alongside humans as a respected minority. Unfortunately Vampires are sick of laws and a police force designed to only contain them and team up with werewolves to put humans in internment camps. Think Final Fantasy VII's midgar as the continent of NA and you know why the book is cool.
Wow sounds awesome can I read your work?
NO! Nothing against you, but the books are not published and they very well never will be. I once did send it out to people, but I kept changing the manuscripts to the point where you never had the final version. They don't need massive editing, but the light bulb just goes off in my head and I want to change something. If you want to read it, harass agents and editors and tell them to get in touch with me. I try and they never listen, but I guess if there's a big enough fanbase, they would give me a shot.
How did you get into games journalism?
Honestly? It's a pain in the ass. I started my sophomore year of college working for the now defunct Video Game Maniacs. From there I went to various publications that would showcase my (opinionated) work. When I finished college, despite knowing some Japanese and having degrees in English (fiction literature...obviously not grammer cuz mine sucks) no place would give me the time of day, let alone freelance assignments. I recently started up with Future Publications and GamesRadar who saw SOMETHING in me...though I dunno if that was legitmate or a drug-induced sighting. From there I'm still trying to get better. Future takes good care of their freelances and they are some of the best people to work for. I'm finally getting things going.
Hey I read your blog! Put in a word for me
Sorry, but no. I hate people who don't pay their dues. Go work for a lackluster publication and get good. I got lucky but did most of the work myself. You'll be a better person in the long run knowing you scratched and clawed to get a foot in the door, rather than a free hand-out. Go to conferences like PAX where you can meet journalists face to face and offer your services. Most of the time if they see something in you, they'll make an investment for a future return...or so I'm told.
Why are you an asshole?
Because I don't like you.
What's wrong with video games in Pat's opinion?
Too many FPS's and non-linear games. Nothing wrong with them, but I like me a story with characters contained once in awhile. When developers do it that way-they mess it up and it gets more rare for someone to try it. The variety is lacking in this day and age due to rising development costs thanks to Final Fantasy VII. I miss the old traditional days with levels and continues. None of this save point, get to the end bullcrap. Games are still fun, but they lack a lot of making you implement your imagination like they used to.
What's your favorite system and game(s)
Favorite System: Super Nintendo
Favorite Games: (in order) Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania III, Zelda OAC, Secret of Mana, Mortal Kombat II, Ninja Gaiden (NES).
Note: While FFVII is my second favorite game of all time, my favorite Final Fantasy is a tie between IV and VI.
I'll add more as more common questions come availible.
Genocide is my full-length novel. It's a fantasy set in modern day dealing with a corporation cloning a religious figure. In response Trad Jenisis sets out to find the real truth of the earth landing him in Jerusalem to uh...kill somebody.
What is The Gamer?
The Gamer is a memoir of myself growing up with the video game industry. More of a personal telling with games as the main subject matter, I show just how nerds were before GTAIII showed up and I realised I wasn't hardcore anymore.
What is Phoenix?
Phoenix is my second novel detailing a futuristic North America and vampires living alongside humans as a respected minority. Unfortunately Vampires are sick of laws and a police force designed to only contain them and team up with werewolves to put humans in internment camps. Think Final Fantasy VII's midgar as the continent of NA and you know why the book is cool.
Wow sounds awesome can I read your work?
NO! Nothing against you, but the books are not published and they very well never will be. I once did send it out to people, but I kept changing the manuscripts to the point where you never had the final version. They don't need massive editing, but the light bulb just goes off in my head and I want to change something. If you want to read it, harass agents and editors and tell them to get in touch with me. I try and they never listen, but I guess if there's a big enough fanbase, they would give me a shot.
How did you get into games journalism?
Honestly? It's a pain in the ass. I started my sophomore year of college working for the now defunct Video Game Maniacs. From there I went to various publications that would showcase my (opinionated) work. When I finished college, despite knowing some Japanese and having degrees in English (fiction literature...obviously not grammer cuz mine sucks) no place would give me the time of day, let alone freelance assignments. I recently started up with Future Publications and GamesRadar who saw SOMETHING in me...though I dunno if that was legitmate or a drug-induced sighting. From there I'm still trying to get better. Future takes good care of their freelances and they are some of the best people to work for. I'm finally getting things going.
Hey I read your blog! Put in a word for me
Sorry, but no. I hate people who don't pay their dues. Go work for a lackluster publication and get good. I got lucky but did most of the work myself. You'll be a better person in the long run knowing you scratched and clawed to get a foot in the door, rather than a free hand-out. Go to conferences like PAX where you can meet journalists face to face and offer your services. Most of the time if they see something in you, they'll make an investment for a future return...or so I'm told.
Why are you an asshole?
Because I don't like you.
What's wrong with video games in Pat's opinion?
Too many FPS's and non-linear games. Nothing wrong with them, but I like me a story with characters contained once in awhile. When developers do it that way-they mess it up and it gets more rare for someone to try it. The variety is lacking in this day and age due to rising development costs thanks to Final Fantasy VII. I miss the old traditional days with levels and continues. None of this save point, get to the end bullcrap. Games are still fun, but they lack a lot of making you implement your imagination like they used to.
What's your favorite system and game(s)
Favorite System: Super Nintendo
Favorite Games: (in order) Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania III, Zelda OAC, Secret of Mana, Mortal Kombat II, Ninja Gaiden (NES).
Note: While FFVII is my second favorite game of all time, my favorite Final Fantasy is a tie between IV and VI.
I'll add more as more common questions come availible.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Stuff
Well it's been awhile, but I have news:
Genocide is still in submissions. I dunno if this thing will ever get represented, but in any case-it's out there.
GamesRadar is having me write a Mortal Kombat retrospective of sorts in honor of the new game coming out. Each article will detail a game in the original trilogy. I may do a seperate article on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 also. The style will be very similar to my CHrono Trigger article on Hardcore Gaming 101, which in itself was inspired by the superb Final Fantasy Articles written by Pat R, on Socksmakepeoplesexy.net. I don't think I'll do humor this time and just stick to the writing. We all know my jokes suck, so I'll just stick to doing something informative.
I plan on playing Final Fantasy XIII sometime in the coming days. I'm playing VIII on my PSP and once again am reminded just how broken of a game it is. It isn't bad, but that Junction system is so easy to abuse so soon in the game. Once you refine magic,cards, items, and draw a bunch of spells, you can have outstanding stats within the first hour of the game. I never really liked VIII. Part of it was friends being hypocritical about the story (talking about it in front of me, then later when I'm doing it they get pissed because someone else wasn't there yet). I still to this day remember being told by a friend "Well you should be at disc three by now, so I don't care if your step-mother is keeping you from playing video games" then proceed to tell his friends storyline crap about the game spoiling it for me. Days later at a game party where we all brought our TVs (and after I beat it) I felt like I wanted to beat up on the final boss again...well someone in the group never got there yet, decided to not heed my warnings of "don't look at my TV" and then began to blame me for spoiling the game. Of course the OTHER friend who didn't care about spoiling stuff for me just said I was a dick and shouldn't have done it (yeah, gotta love idiots).
Why am I telling you this? becuase knowing what I know now I would say "don't worry, it isn't like you're missing much."
Alright, time to play some Mortal Kombat.
Genocide is still in submissions. I dunno if this thing will ever get represented, but in any case-it's out there.
GamesRadar is having me write a Mortal Kombat retrospective of sorts in honor of the new game coming out. Each article will detail a game in the original trilogy. I may do a seperate article on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 also. The style will be very similar to my CHrono Trigger article on Hardcore Gaming 101, which in itself was inspired by the superb Final Fantasy Articles written by Pat R, on Socksmakepeoplesexy.net. I don't think I'll do humor this time and just stick to the writing. We all know my jokes suck, so I'll just stick to doing something informative.
I plan on playing Final Fantasy XIII sometime in the coming days. I'm playing VIII on my PSP and once again am reminded just how broken of a game it is. It isn't bad, but that Junction system is so easy to abuse so soon in the game. Once you refine magic,cards, items, and draw a bunch of spells, you can have outstanding stats within the first hour of the game. I never really liked VIII. Part of it was friends being hypocritical about the story (talking about it in front of me, then later when I'm doing it they get pissed because someone else wasn't there yet). I still to this day remember being told by a friend "Well you should be at disc three by now, so I don't care if your step-mother is keeping you from playing video games" then proceed to tell his friends storyline crap about the game spoiling it for me. Days later at a game party where we all brought our TVs (and after I beat it) I felt like I wanted to beat up on the final boss again...well someone in the group never got there yet, decided to not heed my warnings of "don't look at my TV" and then began to blame me for spoiling the game. Of course the OTHER friend who didn't care about spoiling stuff for me just said I was a dick and shouldn't have done it (yeah, gotta love idiots).
Why am I telling you this? becuase knowing what I know now I would say "don't worry, it isn't like you're missing much."
Alright, time to play some Mortal Kombat.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
CHRONO TRIGGER!!!!
It's no secret that video games inspired my storylines and writing. In fact half the plotlines in Genocide are evolved forms of the easy plots I saw as a child.
Chrono Trigger was probably the best game I've ever played. Somehow, even 20 years after it came it out, I find myself playing it again and again each year.
So I got the DS version this time, and the game is still good. In fact, it's got new areas. Of course the new areas are like a dude getting ahold of a map editor, but I still am giddy with new Chrono areas.
So here's the thing. I keep thinking I've grown out of video games because I can't sit through an Xbox360 game for more than an hour. Then comes this and I waste three hours getting stuff. Games just arn't the same as they used to. They don't draw me in as the old stuff does. Guess that makes me a traditionalist.
Chrono Trigger is a game that I can still play and find something new, and the storyline was that good. Go pick up the DS version and relive memories.
Chrono Trigger was probably the best game I've ever played. Somehow, even 20 years after it came it out, I find myself playing it again and again each year.
So I got the DS version this time, and the game is still good. In fact, it's got new areas. Of course the new areas are like a dude getting ahold of a map editor, but I still am giddy with new Chrono areas.
So here's the thing. I keep thinking I've grown out of video games because I can't sit through an Xbox360 game for more than an hour. Then comes this and I waste three hours getting stuff. Games just arn't the same as they used to. They don't draw me in as the old stuff does. Guess that makes me a traditionalist.
Chrono Trigger is a game that I can still play and find something new, and the storyline was that good. Go pick up the DS version and relive memories.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A moment on Tiger Woods
Since ESPN won't say anything about it, and only Jim Rome is telling it like it is, I figured I'd give my take on this whole Tiger Woods/Masters/Cheating thing.
First things first: I'm not a Tiger Woods fan. I never hated the guy, I've just never been a fan. There is no denying that he is the best golfer of this generation and probably surpasses the likes of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Nicklaus (three of my personal favorites...who I wasn't really around to enjoy). What drives me nuts about Tiger isn't really him, it's how everybody can't shut up about him. A couple of years ago when Tiger had his knee surgery, every network continued to yap about him even though he wasn't there.
It got really bad during a major (I think the US open, but don't quote me on it) where the network in question had half the coverage on the actual golfers and the other half talking about what Woods did the year before when he played. He's a media whore who gets ratings and overshadows everyone else on the course.
Now before you send hate mail, I will once again state-he's earned every bit of it. He's that damn good. I just don't go ga-ga over him simply because everybody else does, and I don't like the way he's on top of the world. Good guy, great golfer, can't stand seeing one person in a sport. It's the same reason I can't stand Brett Favre...but then again he's an overrated, premadonna, piece of...well we're getting off subject.
I really don't give a shit about what Tiger Woods does off the golf course. And neither should you. He's got a personal life, let him fuck it up. If he wants to cheat on his wife and impregnate porn stars (allegedly), let him. It has nothing to do with golf.......
....BUT! The problem is, he's been built up as a role model for kids and adults alike. Half of his sponsors have taken him because he's a do-no-wrong athelete. He's never been in jail, he's never been high off coke, he's a decent guy. Jordan during his time with the Bulls was the same way. I'm not saying Michael Jordan cheated or he didn't cheat, but no one really talked about it because Jordan knew how to handle it. You didn't hear about any scandals going on in Jordan's day besides a small gambling problem (whatever Jordan did is his buisness anyways, point is, he held up pretty well).
Tiger on the other hand, as the new Michael Jordan, didn't get things so smooth; he got caught. Whether it's because his family wouldn't cover it up, or because his wife was sick of his cheating, HE GOT CAUGHT. Now, because he's the person in society that he is, it's only fair that Tiger just simply comes out and says, "Look, I'm not the guy you think I am." That's it. We don't need details of who with, how much, what checks he's scratching for his wife to keep her around etc.
Tiger, just own up, explain what happened and walk. Why should you give two cents? So these families as well as these sponsors know, that you arn't the person you've been marketed as.
The rest doesn't matter. Members of the media following his kids is flat out tasteless, and what goes on between him and his wife in divorce preceedings is irrelevant. I do kind of wonder why you'd cheat on that hot Sweedish blonde of yours...but I won't go there.
Unfortunately, Tiger didn't do that. He held a press conference to his friends and wouldn't take questions. Later on had interviews taking questions and dodging the bullets that followed. If he simply said "I cheated on my wife" right from the start-none of this probably would have gotten so out of control...I THINK.
The flip side is what he was doing Thanksgiving evening. He was on a public street, in an Escalade, asleep, barefoot, while his wife took a 9-iron to the windshield. That probably would make a section in a local Florida paper, so I'm curious to what happened. THAT'S newsworthiness. That's all I want to know. Don't give me this crap "It's personal."
"Man Wrecks car and falls asleep while wife breaks in with 9-iron"
That would so be in a newspaper even if it wasn't Tiger Woods. He needs to stop manipulating everybody, make himself out to be a victim and swallow the pill. Say what you were doing, that you are NOT the man we thought you were, and call it a day.
Afterwords golf news can go back to being sucky...
First things first: I'm not a Tiger Woods fan. I never hated the guy, I've just never been a fan. There is no denying that he is the best golfer of this generation and probably surpasses the likes of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Nicklaus (three of my personal favorites...who I wasn't really around to enjoy). What drives me nuts about Tiger isn't really him, it's how everybody can't shut up about him. A couple of years ago when Tiger had his knee surgery, every network continued to yap about him even though he wasn't there.
It got really bad during a major (I think the US open, but don't quote me on it) where the network in question had half the coverage on the actual golfers and the other half talking about what Woods did the year before when he played. He's a media whore who gets ratings and overshadows everyone else on the course.
Now before you send hate mail, I will once again state-he's earned every bit of it. He's that damn good. I just don't go ga-ga over him simply because everybody else does, and I don't like the way he's on top of the world. Good guy, great golfer, can't stand seeing one person in a sport. It's the same reason I can't stand Brett Favre...but then again he's an overrated, premadonna, piece of...well we're getting off subject.
I really don't give a shit about what Tiger Woods does off the golf course. And neither should you. He's got a personal life, let him fuck it up. If he wants to cheat on his wife and impregnate porn stars (allegedly), let him. It has nothing to do with golf.......
....BUT! The problem is, he's been built up as a role model for kids and adults alike. Half of his sponsors have taken him because he's a do-no-wrong athelete. He's never been in jail, he's never been high off coke, he's a decent guy. Jordan during his time with the Bulls was the same way. I'm not saying Michael Jordan cheated or he didn't cheat, but no one really talked about it because Jordan knew how to handle it. You didn't hear about any scandals going on in Jordan's day besides a small gambling problem (whatever Jordan did is his buisness anyways, point is, he held up pretty well).
Tiger on the other hand, as the new Michael Jordan, didn't get things so smooth; he got caught. Whether it's because his family wouldn't cover it up, or because his wife was sick of his cheating, HE GOT CAUGHT. Now, because he's the person in society that he is, it's only fair that Tiger just simply comes out and says, "Look, I'm not the guy you think I am." That's it. We don't need details of who with, how much, what checks he's scratching for his wife to keep her around etc.
Tiger, just own up, explain what happened and walk. Why should you give two cents? So these families as well as these sponsors know, that you arn't the person you've been marketed as.
The rest doesn't matter. Members of the media following his kids is flat out tasteless, and what goes on between him and his wife in divorce preceedings is irrelevant. I do kind of wonder why you'd cheat on that hot Sweedish blonde of yours...but I won't go there.
Unfortunately, Tiger didn't do that. He held a press conference to his friends and wouldn't take questions. Later on had interviews taking questions and dodging the bullets that followed. If he simply said "I cheated on my wife" right from the start-none of this probably would have gotten so out of control...I THINK.
The flip side is what he was doing Thanksgiving evening. He was on a public street, in an Escalade, asleep, barefoot, while his wife took a 9-iron to the windshield. That probably would make a section in a local Florida paper, so I'm curious to what happened. THAT'S newsworthiness. That's all I want to know. Don't give me this crap "It's personal."
"Man Wrecks car and falls asleep while wife breaks in with 9-iron"
That would so be in a newspaper even if it wasn't Tiger Woods. He needs to stop manipulating everybody, make himself out to be a victim and swallow the pill. Say what you were doing, that you are NOT the man we thought you were, and call it a day.
Afterwords golf news can go back to being sucky...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Editing 101
I've had to edit the shit out of Genocide. The problem when I started was, I didn't know where to begin. I'm too cheap to buy a book, and I couldn't really find a simple blog on what the hell to do (so watch, I get a million emails with links to the blogs I missed).
Let's get this out of the way: Trimming sucks. It's redundant, boring, and tedious.
Luckily, I've learned a lot with my trimming run, so I'll run you through the neccessary steps to trim that novel to a decent contender.
Thanks to the wonderful misery I caused an agent friend of mine, She passed on a few good things about editing I can pass on to the rest of ya's. Her little suggestions have helped me, and I'm sure combined with my regimen it can help you too. By the way, my pronoun misusage and choppy segments in the flow of things is still apparent...neither me nor my friend could fix it...errr..nevermind.
With that said, it aint gonna help you wiht nagging problems in continuity or storyline progression. I've had to live with the fact my writing is just flat choppy, and I can't write a few sentences the "way" they are supposed to be written to save my life...but that's neither here nor there. This is polishing folks.
So the first question is...why trim? Well if you're anything like me, you write opus's that are wayyyy over the 110 mark agents look for. Fact: Agents are going to form reject your ass almost every time if you submit a 120k manuscript. Genocide clocked in at 160,000 words. Count everything that 'should' have been thrown in and it easily would have ran over 200k. Most of the later stuff was thrown out as I realised I was running out of space. Edited, even in a directors cut version, knowing what I know now...I could probably have everything in 150k range, extras and all.
Get your rough and lets get this thing ready.
Read it over once and make changes: Read it and start deleting repetitive phrases, cut scenes out, etc.
Do it again After reading it twice, once more means you can get the point across and have an idea of what's going on.
Take a month off There's a rumor that you should take a year off after writing before editing...unless you want to be 50 years old when your writing gets published, I don't reccomend it. You can clear your head in a month easily, don't take a year, that's bullshit.
Find all usages of the following words: Even, That, Just, Going to --ing, Was --ing, were, had, did, didn't, but. Proof and delete. Word has a nifty feature called Ctrl+f, just type find and go through the whole manuscript. Read the sentence beforehand and anything in the prior paragraph to make your decision. Here's a direct sentence. "Kelita had known that Andrea was getting stronger." I repleaced it with this. "Kelita knew Andrea was stronger." See how much better that is? THere are exceptions, but most of the time, you can think of a better verb than the ones used. Change those --ings to --eds, think of some new words. Along the way you'll catch more redundant sentences and can change those. This will lop off 20,000 words easily. Again, don't just take out all usages, read your sentences and decide if the word isn't needed or maybe you can rewrite it to work better. Chances are you can make the writing less redundant using these words.
Read again, take out uncessary descriptions Readers arn't idiots. they don't need to know the bedroom was on the right and a guest room was on the left (This in fact was a description in Genocide...changed to between)they don't need to know someone reached for, grasped and drank...just drank. Don't worry if you arn't making long paragraphs of descriptions...some people can do it. I can't do it, and it isn't a big deal if you can't either. Fiction should invoke someone's imagination anyways, so don't feel a need to completly jack up the animation.
Hopefully this helps. It's helped me. I may not know much, but believe me, your writing will improve drasticly. There are certain things you can work around...in my case, my limited word set looks passable for this. At this point I'm under 110 (the threashold where they won't form reject you), so obviously I wasn't an exception to that rule...and I'm not like some lucky buggers who can get away with it. When people say "exceptions to go over 110" they really mean EXCEPTIONS, meaning it most likely isn't any of us.
Let's get this out of the way: Trimming sucks. It's redundant, boring, and tedious.
Luckily, I've learned a lot with my trimming run, so I'll run you through the neccessary steps to trim that novel to a decent contender.
Thanks to the wonderful misery I caused an agent friend of mine, She passed on a few good things about editing I can pass on to the rest of ya's. Her little suggestions have helped me, and I'm sure combined with my regimen it can help you too. By the way, my pronoun misusage and choppy segments in the flow of things is still apparent...neither me nor my friend could fix it...errr..nevermind.
With that said, it aint gonna help you wiht nagging problems in continuity or storyline progression. I've had to live with the fact my writing is just flat choppy, and I can't write a few sentences the "way" they are supposed to be written to save my life...but that's neither here nor there. This is polishing folks.
So the first question is...why trim? Well if you're anything like me, you write opus's that are wayyyy over the 110 mark agents look for. Fact: Agents are going to form reject your ass almost every time if you submit a 120k manuscript. Genocide clocked in at 160,000 words. Count everything that 'should' have been thrown in and it easily would have ran over 200k. Most of the later stuff was thrown out as I realised I was running out of space. Edited, even in a directors cut version, knowing what I know now...I could probably have everything in 150k range, extras and all.
Get your rough and lets get this thing ready.
Read it over once and make changes: Read it and start deleting repetitive phrases, cut scenes out, etc.
Do it again After reading it twice, once more means you can get the point across and have an idea of what's going on.
Take a month off There's a rumor that you should take a year off after writing before editing...unless you want to be 50 years old when your writing gets published, I don't reccomend it. You can clear your head in a month easily, don't take a year, that's bullshit.
Find all usages of the following words: Even, That, Just, Going to --ing, Was --ing, were, had, did, didn't, but. Proof and delete. Word has a nifty feature called Ctrl+f, just type find and go through the whole manuscript. Read the sentence beforehand and anything in the prior paragraph to make your decision. Here's a direct sentence. "Kelita had known that Andrea was getting stronger." I repleaced it with this. "Kelita knew Andrea was stronger." See how much better that is? THere are exceptions, but most of the time, you can think of a better verb than the ones used. Change those --ings to --eds, think of some new words. Along the way you'll catch more redundant sentences and can change those. This will lop off 20,000 words easily. Again, don't just take out all usages, read your sentences and decide if the word isn't needed or maybe you can rewrite it to work better. Chances are you can make the writing less redundant using these words.
Read again, take out uncessary descriptions Readers arn't idiots. they don't need to know the bedroom was on the right and a guest room was on the left (This in fact was a description in Genocide...changed to between)they don't need to know someone reached for, grasped and drank...just drank. Don't worry if you arn't making long paragraphs of descriptions...some people can do it. I can't do it, and it isn't a big deal if you can't either. Fiction should invoke someone's imagination anyways, so don't feel a need to completly jack up the animation.
Hopefully this helps. It's helped me. I may not know much, but believe me, your writing will improve drasticly. There are certain things you can work around...in my case, my limited word set looks passable for this. At this point I'm under 110 (the threashold where they won't form reject you), so obviously I wasn't an exception to that rule...and I'm not like some lucky buggers who can get away with it. When people say "exceptions to go over 110" they really mean EXCEPTIONS, meaning it most likely isn't any of us.
Friday, January 22, 2010
And Here We Are
Here's my website...kind of a mess isn't it? Just to complicate your life I've decided to tell GoDaddy to fuck themselves and used the servers on blogspot. If somehow Genocide gets huge I totally understand the posibility that I need my OWN website. For now, this gets the job done. I'll add some more stuff later, for now, I'm gonna go drink beer.
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