The Call of the Open Road
Driving, to me, is one of the most euphoric experiences in life. But I’m not just talking about your daily chugging around town. I’m talking about hitting the open road, really letting loose and feeling your tires spin under your feet. A few years back, as a teenager, I remember taking off for a weekend once, just me and my Honda, driving up to Oregon to visit a friend. It was all on a whim, and I didn’t even have a map, but I remember having this juvinile idea that I could just go.
I had about $200, with no real plans for anything else, and off I went. It was apparent that I didn’t know where I was going, especially when I arrived in California. Now, leaving Vegas, I’d planned to head up the Interstate through California, along the coast. (This was before I actually knew the California highways, you understand.) I made the mistake of heading for, not San Fernando, but San Bernadino. It wasn’t until I actually had driven an hour in unfamiliar roads that I realized my mistake, and so I turned around, and had to make up for time.
The thing was, though, that because I didn’t really have any time constraints, it didn’t really affect me as much as it normally would. I just counted it as part of the drive, and loved it. I was seeing new sights, travelling new roads, and learning new things. I slept in the car, not having enough money for a hotel, and actually not old enough to rent a room for the night by myself. (I was 17 at the time.)
I ate at fast food restaraunts, especially In-N-Out™, and just kept on driving. Now, as I look at it, it was one of my more reckless stages in life, but before, it was really an exciting adventure. I had nothing holding me down, and I was just one with my vehicle, and one with the road.
A few years later, I purchased a Honda CBR 600, (a bullet bike), and it was those same euphoric feelings, but in a different way. With no windows or frame around me, I felt a little vulnerable, but free. It was a feeling of absolute freedom, as the flick of my wrist would ignite my engine, and send me speeding down the road.
Several times, I would take a trip to another town, just so I could really feel the wind whipping at my jacket, the headphones in my helmet blasting tunes as I put road behind me. It was all the same feelings of discovery all over again.
Now, a few years older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I nevertheless still have many of those feelings. I feel the longing to just drive, to not have a destination or a goal in mind, and just make the journey my goal. But now I have responsibilities, and so I must fulfill them before I can again pursue that whimsical dream.
But the road is still calling. And someday, maybe not soon, but someday, I’m going to answer.
- Kyle
The Age of Street Fighter™
Back in those ages where the arcade was the video game hotspot, and where the fighting game debates were about Street Fighter™ and Mortal Kombat™, and when a 3D video game was the talk of imagination, those were the times that gaming thrived. It was when gaming wasn’t just about holing yourself up in the basement for the night, but it was a social experience.
I remember putting quarters up on the Tekken 4 machine, and beating down several people in a row. About it really being a competition of skill. It was about bragging rights, and about seeing the look on your opponent’s face when you really served him hard. When you could take a big-mouthed hot-shot down right in front of all of his friends, and immediately make him shut up.
These were the times before online chat-room bull. Before the guy could curse you out with no repercussions. If you stomped a guy in the arcade, there was literally nothing he could do but challenge you again. What, is he going to try and fight you over a video game? He might have all kinds of insults and excuses in his head, but there’s no way to hack an arcade game. You’re both playing on the same machine, and so it’s all about who’s still standing at the end of three rounds.
I really miss those days. I miss the social atmosphere where arcades were actually places that you could go. None of this online stuff. The people you played against were real people, and it was as much smack-talk face-to-face as a game of street basketball. You couldn’t just sit in your room and feel superior on your gaming throne. You actually had to get out. You had to shower, clean yourself up, and leave the house in order to show somebody up. (What a novel idea.)
It’s this kind of social atmosphere that I feel is missing not only from the gaming community, but also from most other kinds of communities as well. I’ve complained before about the absense of pick-up sports. Here’s just another example. I see us as a culture, in a few years, just sitting in our homes with virtual everything, not really living life, but instead just pretending to. When that time comes, I don’t know what’s going to stop me from picking up my virtual gun, and shooting my virtual self in the virtual head. But that’s not real, is it?
- Kyle
PS – For those of you interested in what Zengief, Dhalsim, Bison, and the rest of the gang are up to these days, check out Street Fighter: The Later Years for a good laugh.
Jupping
While I was in Hong Kong, we used the word “Jup” a lot. Basically, it meant to claim something that someone had left behind, and therefore didn’t want, so was up for grabs. So, we would “Jup” it. Because I shared apartments with up to six people at a time, and we kind of had limited space as we travelled around, lots of items would be lost and found throughout my two-year journey. There were things that I needed for a time, and then left behind, and then someone might come along and use it after me.
In any case, I’ve kind of taken an attitude on life in the same respect. While you should never steal anything from someone, I feel that you can gain a lot from “jupping” things from the personalities and qualities that you see in the people around you. Let’s say that your good friend is really outgoing, and you want to emulate that. Observe him, and “jup” that quality from him. Or maybe you want to be better at math, and don’t know how to go about it. Talk with someone who is, and “jup” that skill from them.
In my personal life, I’ve found that in jupping things from others, I gain a lot, and learn more about myself than if I would have only examined my own life. Jupping is extremely useful. Anytime that I want to learn something, I’ll go and find someone who’s good at it, and ask questions, observe, and keep on trying. It’s always the best way to learn. Sure, you can try to figure it out on your own, or even figure it out with a buddy, but really, you gain experience by leaps and bounds when you jup from somebody that you already know is good.
So to everyone out there, let’s get jupping, eh? Share with others, and don’t be afraid to emulate.
- Kyle
Facebook: Better than MySpace
While most of the world has latched onto the wild world of MySpace, I’ve found that I actually prefer Facebook instead. MySpace allows you to contact all kinds of people all over the world, creating your own “virtual network” of a whole lot of people that you might not even know. To me, it just seems like a place where you’re bound to find trouble with creeps who try to take advantage of others.
On MySpace, you don’t have to tell anyone who you are, but can pretty much look up all kinds of information on other people. The pages are wide open, and you can change the layouts, pictures, and information to whatever you want. There really aren’t any limits, and therefore some of the pages can get pretty nutso. (I’m talking everything from full-flashing animated GIF backgrounds to uncomfortable pictures.) It seems that the sites aren’t really moderated at all, and that the “community” around it isn’t usually the best crowd.”
Facebook, on the other hand, seems a lot better regulated. Many of the features are disabled, such as backgrounds and CSS formatting, which keep all of the individual user pages fundamentally identical. You’re welcome to add a whole lot of widgets and enhancements, but they’re just enhancements, and allow only a limited amount of customization. This helps to keep down the larger images that might offend someone who accidentally “stumbles” onto a page.
The key difference between the two systems, however, is in the way that you approach each one. While on MySpace you can be pretty much whomever you please, and you never have to reveal yourself in order to connect with whoever you like, the Facebook community is run differently.
It attracts a mostly college crowd, stemming from its original goal as a method for college chums to connect with one another. Originally, you were required to use a college email address in order to log in, but that was changed after a good number of potential members who were no longer in college, or who were already graduated. Now, it’s more of a tool to network with friends, as well as former college and high school friends. As such, the community is generally of a more educated and professional quality than that of MySpace. As a result, most of the society seems to be less “extreme” in their approaches.
In any case, I’m actively on Facebook, but I avoid MySpace completely. Why is that? Well, I prefer the clean-cut, and overall simplicity that Facebook provides, while I’m kind of annoyed by the entire MySpace system in general. Is it fair? Is it right? Eh, I just feel that it’s my not-so-humble opinion.
- Kyle
The DTR
This meeting, it seems to me, has probably got to be the worst possible idea ever to be invented, but one that just about ever person wants to get into at one point or another. It’s called “Determine The Relationship” or “The DTR.” I swear, I’ve never heard of it helping anyone, and yet almost everyone, (myself included), is guilty of asking these kinds of questions.
It usually goes something like this:
After a couple has been dating for a while, be it a couple months, or sometimes even just a few weeks, one of the two will ask the question: “So, what do you think of us?”
“Hmm?” Will come the reply.
“Where do you see us headed?”
“I don’t know, why?”
“Well, I just was wondering how you felt about us.”
“I think it’s good.”
“Just good?”
“Umm, it’s great?”
“Haven’t you thought about it?”
At this point, the conversation turns into an emotional bloodbath, as both sides struggle to reconsile with one another. One of the two generally wants to move things a little further, while the other is still a little hesitant. Because neither wants to really move from their opinion, it never ends well, and there isn’t any clarification at all, just more doubts sown into the hearts of both members of the relationship. “Does he like me?” “Does she want me to take this further?” “Am I ready for that kind of commitment?”
I’m of the school of thought that says that when it’s time, you’ll know. I believe that it’s just going to work. Of course, you should be actively searching if you expect any results, but you shouldn’t be in the middle of a directed campaign in order to find someone. I feel that a friendship is the biggest reason for any relationship. Not having a boyfriend or girlfriend, not sex, not showing off to others that you have a relationship. If you start off every relationship with a friendship as the goal, and then see how it goes from there, then you’ll be better off.
I know a number of people who seem to judge every member of the opposite sex as a potential marital companion. They have a very pointed goal of getting right in and getting married as soon as possible. I think that’s the wrong mindset. I feel that you should just take your time, have fun, and see where life takes you. Life’s too stressful as it is.
I’d compare the DTR with pulling up the flowers to see how the roots are doing. It hurts the flower and only impedes its growth. Just relax, for goodness sakes! Otherwise, you’re just inviting more heartache into your life than you want.
- Kyle
That's What She Said
While widely popularized by The Office, the phrase “That’s What She Said” has been around for quite a long time before that. It’s been a catchphrase among teenagers for years, along with such gems as “Your mom…” and “You’re so…that…”
I think that only recently, however, in the past 10-15 years, has innuendo become such a commonplace practice when it comes to jokes and humor. Obviously, dirty jokes have been shared privately for quite a long time, but there was a time when I was younger that you’d never hear that kind of a joke from anyone, and frankly, if my mom were to have heard me say that, I’d have probably gotten the belt. (My mom was also completely against The Simpsons, saying that it was a bad influence.)
Now though, it’s so commonplace that jokes such as “That’s what she said” are actually fairly mild, when compared to the more blatant references that are placed in the faces of anyone who dares to turn on a television. If you compare The Simpsons to The Family Guy, you can understand what I’m talking about. While The Simpsons has plenty of subtle innuendoes and more than enough irreverent humor, it’s also a great look at the way that society works at large. (I had a history professor once who hailed Simpsons as the most accurate portrayal of American life on television. You be the judge.)
Shows like The Family Guy use sex as their main vehicle for humor and laughs, and after a while, it just gets annoying. When a joke is clever, it’s funny. But when it’s just blatantly perverse, it crosses the line from funny to disturbing, and you don’t get as many laughs.
I think that’s why, while The Office offers plenty of off-color humor, it stays mostly in the innuendo level, because that’s what makes people laugh. Sorry, didn’t mean to go off on that, but it kind of struck me as a good topic, and it always makes me smile.
…That’s what she said.
- Kyle
Pre-Marriage Wedding Reception
Recently, I went to the wedding of a good friend of mine, but was a little confused that we were supposed to meet at someone’s house the night before for the reception. Now, I’ve always expected the reception to be after the ceremony, so that we can pretty much “party all night” and no one really minds. The bride and groom leave before the rest of us, of course, but that’s just always been the way it goes.
This reception, however, took place before the wedding the next morning, and so around 11:00 or so, everyone began to leave out of propriety, and because they didn’t want to wake up late for the wedding. It was just really weird.
Is it wrong? Not really. I mean, it’s their wedding, they can do pretty much whatever they want, can’t they? But it seems like a pretty strange thing. After all, it’s just inviting trouble, I think. Everyone knows that the reception is the bride’s party, while the groom’s starts during the honeymoon. When you have the reception before, and everyone has to clean up the night before so everyone can get to the wedding…
Maybe this one isn’t making a ton of sense, but the whole subject doesn’t make sense to me. Oh well, that’s just the way things go sometimes, I guess. I’m gonna go watch a movie to bring some sanity back into my life. Maybe something like Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind. That seems a lot less mind-bending, right?
- Kyle
Nickelodeon Classics
As I was surfing on the web the other day, I kept trying to find some old TV episodes for sale on DVD. I remember, back during my childhood, watching some of the most interesting shows ever. I’ve complained a little about the quality of cartoons now, but I can recall some classic shows, especially on networks like Nickelodeon, that you just don’t see anymore.
For example, does anyone remember Doug? How about Hey Dude? Or maybe Salute Your Shorts, or My Brother and Me, or Are You Afraid of the Dark? These were shows that I used to watch all the time when I was a kid, and to compare them to today’s “kid fare” is just unfair. These were classic shows that were entertaining, usually quite clever, very kid-oriented, but not just a mishmosh of flashy animation, some CG wizardry, and cliché dialogue.
The most interesting part was that often times, they even had… (hold your breath) …values! They would actually have a lesson hidden amongst the humor and hijinks. Honesty, integrity, loyalty, and friendship were actually shown to be good things, as opposed to just ways of manipulating people. There were unique characters that had unique personalities, and whose actions actually had consequences that they had to deal with. We watched as these characters dealt with the pressures of life, including acceptance, vanity, family and peers. And we actually cared!
Well, after searching, I stumbled across a site called nickclassics.com. I don’t know where the company is based, or what they do, exactly, but they’ve managed to find and format every episode of the seasons of “The Golden Age of Nickelodeon.” These DVD sets include a good number of classic shows that most any child of the 90′s television age would recognize. As for me, I’ve already ordered the Doug DVD set. (It was always one of my favorites.) I’m pretty excited.
- LATER EDIT – I got the DVDs, and they’re great! Broadcast quality, pulled right off the TV. Fun stuff.
- Kyle
Driving a Honda
I drive a 1997 Honda Civic, with over 230,000 miles on it. My girl’s been places, I’ll tell you what. She’s painted white with a bunch of my custom stickers, and she’s pretty much my main mode of transportation. (But, you might also see me around the campus riding my silver mountain bike, which I carry on top of my car with a handy bike rack.) In any case, my Civic is sporty, stylish, but still modest enough for me, and has lasted for year after year of daily driving without hardly a problem.
There’s just something about Hondas that make them amazing vehicles. They’re usually not the most beefy of vehicles, and are generally found near the bottom of the scale as far as horsepower goes. But they drive well, are relatively inexpensive, and last forever with proper maintainance. If you take care of them, they’ll last for decades with little concern, hardly complaining as you wear out tire after tire before your transmission even notices.
I have friends who own other makes, especially American-built cars like Fords and Chevys, and it amazes me how often they seem to have problems. Either there’s a weird noise, or something’s driving funny, or who knows what. But the biggest problem my car ever had was when I accidentally smacked the exhaust on a high curb and kicked the pipes forward. (But I don’t really count that cause, after all, it was my fault, not the car’s.)
I don’t really have a whole lot to say beyond that. I keep my girl clean and tidy, and though she might be getting a little older as far as imports go, she’ll still get a look or two. It’s just that Honda deserves a heavy amount of praise for putting together an automobile that’s fun to drive, can last forever, and doesn’t guzzle fuel like so many other vehicles.
But I’m pretty sure they were just satisfied that I bought their car.
- Kyle
The Octopus Card
Alright, just about nobody carries cash anymore. It’s way more useful to just carry a debit card, and its certainly a lot safer, considering the safety features available. If you lose your debit card, you can usually call in and cancel it, and often get most if not all of your money back. If cash is gone, it’s gone. There’s no retrieval, and nobody can help you with it. The green has left the scene.
However, the problem with not carrying cash is that, as a college student, I spend a lot of my time in the school. Now, there’s a food court, but that’s a good ten or fifteen minute walk from where most of my classes are, and I usually can’t spare that kind of time just for a Sobe or a candy bar (if I feel so inclined.) So, I go without, the vending machine doesn’t get used, and I go thirsty.
Thing is, while I was in Hong Kong, there were this awesome little cards that you could use like cash just about anywhere. They were called Octopus Cards, and worked pretty simply. You’d slip the card into your wallet, or even in a little card-holder or a backpack, (a friend of mine told me he used his tie sometimes!), and then you’d hand money to the guy at the 7-11 or Circle-K. You put the card on the scanner, and BEEP! The money was transferred onto your card. You were then free to use it on just about anything. You could use it for the train, the bus, a taxi, groceries, or even back at the 7-11. It wasn’t a swipe and back account check like a debit card, instead, the money was on a little chip inside of the Octopus Card itself.
Sure, if you got it stolen, it was the same as cash, you couldn’t get it back, but that didn’t happen hardly ever. I remember one time, I lost my wallet, and had to go backtracking until I found it. When I finally tracked it down at a mall lost-and-found, all the cash I’d had (about $200HK) was gone, but my card was safe behind my ID Card, with a good $350HK still on it.
I know it might be difficult at first, but since no one likes to carry cash anymore, why not implement the same system here in the US? You could just put them on vending machines and buses, or even subways, and could do away with tickets for the most part. While I don’t quite know about the feasability of using such a system nationwide, I certainly believe it would be useful for a city such as New York or Los Angeles to have such a system available.
In any case, it would sure make things a whole lot more convenient.
BEEP! Thanks for the Sobe.
- Kyle
Rant Against Nextel's Text Messaging
This is gonna be a short one, but it merits mentioning just the same. Man, I hate the Nextel text messaging service! It’s like they’ve come up with the worst possible way to send texts, or are just too stubborn to get on track with the rest of the world.
When I was living abroad for a couple years, I was with a small cell phone company whose name I can’t even remember. But the texts worked fast, easily, and the T9 system was pretty much like a left hand to me. It was truly INSTANT messaging. But Nextel, no, they can’t use a phone line. Instead, they run all your messages through a web system, which sometimes works, but usually offers a huge delay between texts, which results in conversations that don’t quite make sense, and in some messages that end up arriving at their destination a day, or two, or even three after you sent it! I could have mailed a letter in that kind of time!
In any case, it’s just really annoying. I just wanted to share that with the world.
- Kyle
Off The Lot – Bad Ideas
I was talking with a number of film majors the other day, about a short film project that we’re working on, and I happened to mention one of the films from Fox’s “On The Lot.” I was kind of surprised when most of them told me that they’d never heard of it before. Pulling out my handy-dandy notebook computer, I pulled up onthelot.com to show them.
Imagine my personal surprise when the site with so much good video footage and quality short film examples was completely gone, except for a splash page that says “Congratulations to Will Bigham”, the winner of the show’s contest. I’ve since turned to VeohTV to download as many of the films as I can track down, but I still can’t find all of the ones that I liked.
Why would Fox make such a stupid move? They were generating business, advertising, and good filmmaking just by providing these kinds of quality examples. And in a puff of smoke, poof! It’s all gone.
For those of you who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, On The Lot was a reality-based competition along the same lines as American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance?, and other similar shows. In a basic episode, three filmmakers would be called to the front to show their short films (generally no longer than three minutes), and then the judges would say what they liked, what they didn’t like, etc.
The judges consisted of Carrie Fisher, of Star Wars fame, the long-time laugh man, Garry Marshall, and usually a guest judge, who was often a highly-regarded director, such as Michael Bay, David Frankel, or Wes Craven. Viewers would vote on the films of the week, deciding the fate of the filmmakers as they went through the competition, and the winner would recieve a million-dollar development deal with Dreamworks Studios.
It was an interesting premise, and I actually liked the films themselves, though I could have really cared less about the actual directors. There were some truly interesting things in there, and some amazing ideas and unique concepts that were just amazing to watch.
If Fox was smart, they’d edit together a DVD of all the films of the first season, and strike while the iron’s still warm. I know I’d pick up a copy. Until then, though, I guess I’ll just keep looking on Veoh.
- Kyle
The Loss of Pick-Up Sports
About every wednesday, a group of us guys get together to play some basketball down at one of the churches in our area. I know that’s not really so unusual, and I really enjoy myself down there. (Even if I do get a little intense sometimes – I’ve been nicknamed everything from “The Train” to “The Brick Wall.” Thick skin, you understand…)
In any case, it occured to me that while organized games occur pretty frequently in the area where I live, (It’s mostly a large college town), there aren’t as many opportunities to just find a group of people already playing and just hop in. Does this make sense to anyone else?
Maybe I could give an example. I spent some time a year and a half ago in Hong Kong, which was quite an interesting experience, let me tell you. But one of the things that seemed most unique to me was the presence of numerous parks and sports parks all throughout the city. There were concrete soccer pitches, turf fields, as well as a large number of basketball courts. Just about every night of the week, you could find ten-fifteen kids out on the courts, shooting hoops or waiting in line for their team’s chance at taking the winner’s court.
Now, when I arrived home, I’ve often looked for pick-up games of… well, anything. They just don’t exist. There’s no one out playing basketball outside. There’s no spontaneous football games. The only way that you get to play is if you join one of the intermurals teams, and I simply just don’t have the time for that.
I’ll tell you right now that I love to play sports. Be it football, basketball, raquetball, or even my personal favorite, Ultimate frisbee, I just love to be out there, pushing myself, leaping for the catch, charging through the line, or trying my darndest to put together a give-n-go.
I just wish that there were ways that you could play without having to organize it all, and justify it to everyone by saying that it was “good exercise.” Why is it that growing up has to equate to such dullness?
- Kyle
The Eye of the Tiger
I remember, a long time ago when I was in elementary school, watching the movie Rocky for the first time. Even though I was a little too young to understand a lot of the implications of why Rocky was going to fight, why Apollo was such a jerk to him, or whether Rocky actually won or lost the last fight, I did get a charge from it. All I knew was that Rocky was getting ready for battle, and the music was pumping, that Rocky theme was blaring from the speakers, and there was an electric motivation in my living room.
As a teenager, I purchased a 50 lb punching bag, and hung it up in my parents’ garage. I couldn’t really afford boxing gloves at the time, so I just wrapped up my hands, and went to work at it, scraping up my knuckles and working my arms. It was really the only “boxing” that I’d ever experienced, and I found that I really enjoyed it. Eventually, I did get a hold of some gloves, and I realized that this was a much better way to go, as my knuckles began to hurt significantly less.
But it was a fleeting affair. I put in on hold for a few years after that, getting into motorcycles, and cars, and whatnot, and my heavy bag got put into storage. Fast forward to January of 2007.
As a college student, I wanted to get into a workout regime, but really didn’t have the time or the desire to really write out a program for myself. I just wanted a way to get into shape. Well, one day I happened to driving at the south end of town, and happened across a sign emblazoned “LA Boxing.”
Maybe I was a bit of a sucker, but I knew that I would be signing up as soon as I walked in. 100 lb heavy bags hung from rafters in the center. A regulation ring was right in the front, with a couple guys sparring lightly. There was the clip-clip of the jump rope, and weights being raised and lowered. I could feel the sweat in the air, the light mugginess of raw determination. This was truly a fighting gym. Again, I felt that familiar charge.
I’ve been going on and off for the past nine months now, not extremely dedicated, I know, but I give my full effort when I have the time. I know that it’s not about to become my career, and while I’ve sparred a number of times, I resigned myself simply to training, keeping in shape, and looking my best, instead of actually mixing it up in the ring. (Call me narcissistic, but I like the shape my face is in.)
I’ve brought a few friends along at times, and they’ve all agreed that it’s some of the hardest workout they’ve ever done. It’s not for the faint of heart, or lungs, and you’ve really got to try. I’ve watched a number of the club members step off to the side during some of the harder portions of the workout, and I just couldn’t accept it. It would be too easy, and I’ve never planned to be one who gives up so readily.
I’ve found that I feel best when I’m at least true to this stigma. If I’m going to do something, I’ve got to put my heart into it. If not, I’ve found, it’s really not worth doing. I may be very good at whatever it is, but if I don’t have that fire in me when I’m at it, then I realize that I’m not enjoying it.
The only time that my blood gets pumping is when I get to try, I get to push myself, and when I’m completely spent at the end. I don’t like to leave anything in reserve, and I’ve found that I always seem to have a little more. Am I psychotic? Maybe. But I know what I can handle, whatever sport, work, or activity it may be. For me to really live, I’ve got to push.
- Kyle
Red vs Blue: What are we doing here?
I don’t know any gamer who hasn’t at least heard of the cultural phenomenon known as Red Vs Blue, or RvB. As for myself, I’d seen one of their “Public Service Announcements” a few years ago, and while I thought it was funny, it didn’t really strike me to go look up anything else about it. Instead, I just passed it off as one of those “funny internet things” and moved on.
Fast forward to the present, where I’ve had a brief liason with the series yet again. I happened to stumble across another film, this time one of the actual “episodes” of the series. I laughed so hard at it that I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. Quickly, I did some research, and tracked down the downloads for every episode that I could find, eventually putting together the entire 100 episodes, as well as a good number of PSAs. While that may be a dubious achievement to most, it was a fun little project to take up a few hours of my day and a few GBs of memory.
The “show” is essentially a story about the soldiers of Blood Gulch, one of the multiplayer maps found in the original game of Halo, for the X-Box. They question, ridicule, prod, misinterpret, and joke about everything and anything, including each other, military protocol, games (of course), philosophy, and society in general.
What makes it funny, at least to me, is that these are widely accessable, not only to gamers exclusively, but really anyone with a fun sense of humor. The characters are so well-portrayed, and extremely unique, that it makes for a fun show to watch, and you forget that you’re just watching a video game.
The series is made with a technique that has been dubbed “machinima”, which is the use of video games as animation tools for other entertainment. The characters are filmed through the use of an observer, matched to the voices and sound effects already recorded, and voila! You’ve got a very unique brand of entertainment.
The creators of RvB, a company known as RoosterTeeth, while obviously not the first to create films with video games, are arguably the most well known and influential group in the genre. Their work has really pushed them to the forefront of this questionably legitimate genre, and they have a good number of fans to prove it.
The series is definitely not for younger viewers, mostly because they simply wouldn’t get it, but also because there are a number of innuendoes and a good amount of language to deter any careful parent from endorsing such a title. However, if you can look past that, it’s some of the most clever hilarity on the internet, hands down.
- Kyle
Welcome Back, Potter
I only recently discovered the ’70s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter,” which was the big vehicle for John Travolta, and I absolutely love it. I keep on trying to find the DVDs somewhere, because I really think it represents a time when delinquent kids could be made funny without it all being about “how much we can represent sex on screen.”
In any case, in my search, I came across this funny little YouTube clip. It should be funny for Kotter and Potter fans alike.
- Kyle
Harry Potter, and the Age of Faceless Characters
Alright, I may be just a little behind the “cutting edge” bandwagon, but I’ve finally finished reading the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I must admit that I spent a number of nights until 1AM or so in order to read “just one more chapter” over and over, so the book itself was rather addicting. I think what bothered me a little, though, was that much of the book was spent in a tent, and I could tell that it was dragging a little. While I realize that there were a lot of things to get done, loose ends to tie up, and other things to take care of, there really were a few times that I was sitting there, willing myself to turn the page. As I finally reached the end, I was just ripping through, racing to find out what was going to happen next. It was definitely a fitting end to the series. I was very happy with it, and offer Rowling my congrats. I know she appreciates it, I’m sure.
What was so much more interesting, though, was the phenomenon and craze that has gone on around this story for the past decade. Harry Potter has become the iconic character of the early 21st century. (A look at the lines to buy the 7th book at Barnes & Noble should have convinced you of that. Compare that to the lines for the PS3 or the XBox 360, or even the iPhone.) The character has truly embraced a wide range of group personas, from young kids in elementary school to college students, as well as seasoned intellectuals.
What I’ve noticed, however, is the lack of these kinds of characters in the stories that are told in the media that we view, read, or watch now. Growing up, I was wowed by the He-Man, Ninja Turtles, the Ghostbusters… Indiana Jones was my hero from a very young age. Star Wars, though it was a little before my time, also took away a good chunk of my childhood. I remember having all the toys and stickers and notebooks, and pencil cases.
The most interesting parts about all of these, however, were not necessarily the products. It was the icon that they represented. The TMNT logo, or the “no-ghosts” sign; a lightsaber, blaster; a whip, or a fedora – each of these have become American pop-culture icons, that have seemingly outlasted the original sources that they came from, and still seem to permeate our culture today.
Now, fast forward past the 90s into the 21st century. What do we have to show for ourselves? The only comparable icons that we’ve produced seem to be The Matrix, which was and is one of the most original ideas ever produced on screen, and Harry Potter, the literary phenomenon of an original outside-the-box thinker. I guess I should also mention Pokemon, which itself can account for the unholy amount of Japanese cartoons that our kids are force-fed on Saturday mornings.
When you go to the movies now, or watch television, you seldom see unique, interesting characters anymore. Instead, you get the “tough-guy” character who can do anything, the sexy female, (either the victim or the femme fatale), and teenage characters who are simply dim-witted horndogs.
In an attempt to give audience “empathy” with the faceless characters, they are thrown into unbelievable, cruel, or even grotesque situations, and the audience is forced to watch as they are battered and bruised purely from an external perspective. How sad is that?
This is mostly why I enjoyed Harry Potter. There was internal struggle. You got to know the character, not only because of what he could or couldn’t do, but also why he was in the situations he was in. There was a soul to follow, there was a face, whether he had a lightning scar on it or not.
So kudos to Rowling. May her works continue to put to shame the drivel that the mainstream media would have us wade through.
- Kyle
Am I Willing to Sacrifice?
I love to drive. The sound of an engine roaring accompanied by the rushing wind, and the welcome melodies of the stereo all come together with me as the conductor, directing where this moving composition should travel. In my everyday life, it’d be hard to imagine myself walking into my garage to warm up my electric or hydrogen-powered car, getting the water started so that I could bubble my way down the highway. What would I do without my good old car? Riding my bike from Salt Lake to Los Angeles doesn’t sound all that appealing, but neither does driving in a four-wheeled coffee pot.
However, I do understand that there’s a point to trying something else. Instead of treating these new fuel choices as “potential” energy sources, it’d be better for me to embrace them, instead of questioning them. If so many gave so much, including property, loved ones, and even their own lives in some cases, all throughout history for the freedoms and choices that we now enjoy, I should be willing to give up a little bit of personal comfort and pleasure for the betterment of mankind.
But then again, I’m still stuck with the practicality of a new fuel source. Gas prices are already getting higher, and I’m not sure I can afford a brand new hydrogen automobile. When and if these new sources become commonly available price wise, will it be efficient to get me quickly where I want to go? Or am I going to be chugging along, lost to the fast-paced modern lifestyle of people with not enough time to make Minute Rice? As much as we try to deny it, however, our oil isn’t going to last us forever.
With the increase in use of oil all the time, and the fact that America uses more of it than anyone else, we need to find another option. We need to find a new way to transport ourselves and our culture. If it’s to be electric, fine. If it’s to be solar powered or even hydrogen powered, then fine. But am I ever going to get used to driving along in a bubble car?
- Kyle
