Exfanding Your Horizons

So I promised you a guest post...

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

...but, obviously, this is not it. Go enjoy your Saturday; we'll be back tomorrow with something, we promise.

And this is a promise I can keep, because it's already been written and scheduled.

Deadline Week

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It's, like, deadline week here. Complete this huge project for work by 10 AM. Post by 11 AM. Clean up the apartment before weekend plans begin. Watch these movies in our Netflix Instant Queue before their licenses expire next week. Finish this review of Out There Somewhere while it's still relevant (though, in my defense, nearly a week of technical setbacks kept me from finishing the review in time for the game's release).

Alex and I have both been in a rush. You can tell from the topics of our posts this week. You can tell from the lengths of our posts--we're never this concise, this consistently. Not to worry, though; we're starting to structure ourselves again: I've solicited a guest post for Saturday, and I'm rolling out a new column on Sunday, so hopefully we'll be in good shape going into next week.

And Then Thursday Happened

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Oh, man. I'm getting bad at this.

Usually when I get tied up and have to post late, it’s at least somewhere around 11:00. Today, though. Jeez, sorry about that, guys. It’s been a crazy week, and I just haven’t had the time I’d like to be able to sit down and write out something worth reading.

I’m kinda out of sorts altogether today, as I got into a minor car accident last night that’s set my today into a tailspin of annoyance. Not to worry, though, I was only rear-ended and, while there was noticeable damage, I’m fine.

Typically, this is where things like car insurance come in handy.

And it would, totally, if I wasn’t scheduled to turn the car back into the dealer…oh, this afternoon. Yeah. Sometimes irony is hilariously ironic.

So, yeah. I’m a little out of my mind today with stupid stuff. Also, there’s been quite a bit of work to do over the last couple of weeks, so I’m busily…um…working. And when I’m not working? Sleep.

My life in a nutshell.

Again, sorry about today. No fears, though—Nathaniel has tomorrow covered.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 8

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:50:00 +0000

As Nathaniel mentioned yesterday, my posting has been rather sparse of late. This has mostly been due to the fact that I really don’t have much time to do…well, anything lately. I got in from work last night sometime after midnight, and as I hurriedly write this morning’s column, I realize that I should probably work on planning things out a bit better when it comes to posting.

To that point, Nathaniel’s idea of a new weekly column is a good one, I think, mostly for the reasons he laid out yesterday.

For my part, Waiting for Wednesday is always the easiest blog post to write on any given week, mostly because I’ve “shaped” it into something that can be anything, really. Sure, it started out with the sole purpose of previewing upcoming comic book releases, but as they tend to do, things changed.

Rather quickly, too, as I guess I’m just no good at following rules, even if they’re rules that I’ve set.

Today, as you might be able to tell being that this column is going up around 1:30, is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. No comics reviews, no nothing really. I didn't get out of work until after midnight, and I have a pretty good amount of work due in the not-so-distant future.

So, yeah. I apologize for making this brief and kinda pointless, but...um. I'll make it up to you?

Forget Corinthian and Ionic; I Want a Dork Column

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

There'll likely be a follow-up to yesterday's post later this week, but first, I need some opinions on something. You might have noticed that Alex's posts have been fewer and shorter recently, and that's simply due to a lack of time to write. One thing that's helped to keep order and focus on this blog has been Alex's Waiting for Wednesday column, and I'm thinking it might be time to start a column of my own.

For one thing, I've been toying with the idea of a regular feature for a few months now. It's been great for Alex to have a day of the week where the subject matter is already laid out for him, and it's been great for me to have that day as a (mostly) guaranteed blog vacation. With his schedule being as relentlessly busy as it is now, it might be nice to give him a weekly holiday, and to help me from running out of posting ideas prematurely.

The trouble is...what would I write about every week?

The obvious answer is "Mega Man," but I feel that's a little too specialized--video games I could get away with, but one series exclusively is pushing it. I talk about my Backloggery enough that perhaps a weekly gaming progress update might work instead.

I could take a page from The Arglefumph Blog and do a sort of Three Things Thursday, where I pick any three things and talk about them. Simple, straightforward, structured, and yet flexible.

Maybe Random Recommendations would be in order--a quick blurb about one or two things I recently watched, read, heard, attended, or ate. I did that once, and it worked pretty well.

Alex said he'd like to read about my world-building process for my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. There'd be too many spoilers for the players if I wrote about my upcoming quest, but I've got about six years of previous adventures I could cover, so that's a possibility.

I'm also open to other suggestions. As long as it's something I could write about easily and sustain indefinitely, I'll certainly consider it. Any thoughts?

Out of the Film Loop

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

My wife and I were having a discussion with two friends last night about the best movies we've seen all year. We brought up one of our recent Netflix adventures, the 1950 Best Picture All About Eve.

No no no, we were told. Something recent.

After a bit more discussion, it became clear to me just how out-of-the-loop I've been with modern cinema. Unlike video games, which I typically won't touch until they're at least a few years old, I do occasionally make it out to see a movie while it's still in theaters. Though, between all the traveling last year and the distance now between me and the people who used to drag me out to movies, I've fallen out of the moviegoing habit.

I've seen a few films in the past several months, such as J. Edgar (which I enjoyed) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (which I also enjoyed), but I completely missed out on Captain America and a number of others. At least with video games, I'm aware of the latest craze, but my weekly check-in at Rotten Tomatoes has fallen by the wayside for some reason, and it may be time to bring it back. I'm now completely disconnected from new movies, unless I catch a stray advertisement online or hear someone talking about a film.

The one that really took me by surprise was the new Miyazaki film, which I discovered last night when my wife announced we would be seeing the new Miyazaki film tonight. I have absolutely no idea what I'm in for; I can't even remember the name. Wish me luck.

Weekend Work

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Don't really have anything comparable to follow up Nathaniel's epic--and awesome--Harry Potter marathon post from yesterday, so I think I'll be pretty brief today.

So far, it's been a busy weekend of…well, work, mostly. And there's plenty more in store, as I have lots of stuff going on, both at work and in my at-home work endeavors.

The work-work stuff is, well, it's work and there's lots of it today, but I'm not gonna talk about it here. The at-home work, though? That's the fun stuff.

As I’ve alluded to in the past, I’m in the process of self publishing a children’s book. I’m now pretty far along in that process, and things are getting to the nitty gritty—but the fun part of the nitty gritty (if that makes any sense). I'm in that wonderful stage where I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, which despite how it might sound, is actually a lot of fun.

You see, it’s one thing to write something, and to then stick it in a (digital) drawer for a while before making a decision to do anything with it. I've found that I'm quite good at that part of the game.

There's plenty of stuff that I've written and just socked away.

But, for a number of reasons, I decided to go all out with this latest project and sometime around October of last year I took the first big step--teaming up with an artist. Just getting to that step can prove to be quite the task, but this time it just felt like the right thing to do.

Since then, things have progressed nicely and I've received layouts for the entire book. I am, to say the least, incredibly excited with what I've seen, and I cannot wait to see what the final product looks like.

While the artist is hard at work on the finished pages, I'm now venturing out into the big, scary world of printers. There's lots of options from which to choose, and there's quite a bit of a difference in price with...well, with everything. Low print runs, in color, with a hard cover?

Incredibly expensive.

Because it's a children's book, we need to print this bad boy in full color, which ain't cheap, let me tell you. Still, along with some very smart friends of mine, I think I've narrowed things down enough to at least have a very real possibility of producing a high quality product for a price that isn't going to ruin me.

And, while those words may well come back to haunt me in the future, Present Day Alex is quite happy, and quite confident in what's to come.

Which, if you know me, is not like me at all.

But just going over page layouts and planning out both the printing and the marketing strategies for the book have me riled up--in a good way for once.

I know full well the pitfalls and the landmines of the publishing business. But, like one of my very first baseball coaches used to say, you can learn a whole heck of a lot more by watching someone who's doing everything wrong than you can from someone who's doing things right.

And I've watched plenty of people go about doing things the wrong way over the course of my career.

So we'll see what happens, and as I like to say: What could possibly go wrong?

: )

-- -- -- --

Enjoy your Sunday, Exfanders.

Mischief Managed!

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

A Harry Potter movie marathon should only take 19 hours and 38 minutes, assuming you're watching all 8 films back-to-back, in their entirety (including credits), with a one-minute break between films. A timeline of your day might look something like this:

7:00 AM - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone + breakfast
9:33 AM - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
12:15 PM - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban + lunch
2:53 PM - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5:15 PM - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
7:34 PM - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince + dinner
10:08 PM - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
12:35 AM - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
2:45 AM - Collapse into a heap

You might invite a group of friends over to your apartment, extend the offer for them to stay overnight, recommend they come in costume, and provide ample food and drink to keep everyone in peak marathoning condition.

How much food and drink does it take to survive a Harry Potter movie marathon? I myself polished off a half can of Pringles, a dozen powdered mini-donuts, half a Canadian bacon pizza, a pile of regular ruffly potato chips, a big glass o' grape juice, a big glass o' Hawaiian Punch, multiple cans of Barq's, Mello Yello, and Cherry Pepsi, and...you know what? I don't think I actually want to continue this list.

While food and drink certainly help, just as important are the people subjecting themselves to this insanity with you. Watching all eight of these films alone, or for the first time, is an ordeal, both physically and mentally. Participating in a marathon with seven other people who've seen the films, and who have both thought-provoking and riotous commentary to share, is a party.

Two weekends ago, we had a party.

The setup: Facing the television were one couch, one loveseat, a papasan chair, a recliner, and some random chair we pulled out of the back room--sufficiently comfortable seating for all. A spare DVD player was in place, should the primary one catch on fire or explode after so many hours of continuous wizarding. Nearby, still within eyeshot of the TV, the dining room table was laden with a smorgasbord of snackery. Cold beverages and snacks occupied the majority of the refrigerator, save for the space in the back with the leftover chicken that really needed to be thrown away. Our chintzy blue Christmas tree, still up after two months, found a new festive purpose with my wife's papercraft Harry Potter tree topper.

The plan: Wake up, shower (please, for the sake of your neighbor on the couch), start the first movie at 7:00 AM sharp and proceed as outlined in the timetable above. Sit down to watch the first movie with breakfast in hand, make available lunch fixin's during the credits of the appropriate movie, and order pizzas for delivery at the appointed hour. Break for the bathroom if necessary between films, and during the films, enjoy all the Harry Potter-themed goodies my wife and our guests prepared in advance--butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, pumpkin juice (pictured earlier in this post), Hagrid's rock cakes, Cockroach Clusters (both pictured below), Wizard Wands, and so forth.

The hitch: My wife, who had spent the better part of the previous week with me preparing the apartment for guests, had run out of time to make anything before the marathon began, and the guest who was planning on bringing the rest of the themed snacks had taken ill about two days before the marathon, preventing her from making and bringing as much as she'd planned.

The other hitch: 7:00 AM sharp is more like 7:15-ish for most people on a Saturday.

The other other hitch: Apparently, activities such as assembling lunch sandwiches, taking photos of people in costume, and saying goodbye to friends who can't stay for the whole event, cannot be compressed into the 1-minute disc-switching break between movies, even if we start the process during the credits.

The end result: The marathon didn't actually end until closer to 3:45 AM. My wife spent half the marathon in the kitchen with experimental recipes. We suspect she was cooking with Ron's damaged wand from Chamber of Secrets, as we ended up with a plastic measuring cup destroyed by scalding butterscotch and a lump of chocolate pudding cake batter containing splinters of what was formerly my favorite wooden spoon.

Regardless, the important part is that we did watch all eight movies.

7:12 AM - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Having recently seen Deathly Hallows - Part 2 in the theater, it was jarring to return to the first movie in the series. It wasn't the drastic age difference between the heroes of the last movie and their considerably younger counterparts--practically toddlers, really--so much as the difference in production values. By the time the series ended, the filmmakers had settled on a dark, distinctive style, but in the beginning, production values weren't too far off from a particularly nice-looking film produced specifically for TV.

"Whimsical." I think that's the word I'd use to describe it. There was a real emphasis on the colorful characters and the unusual world they lived in. Storytelling and cinematography seemed secondary, though the whole thing still held together quite well. Perhaps even more striking was how British everything felt. The later movies are not so rooted in their country of origin; the cultural peculiarities and even the accents gradually soften into an innocuous Americanized British that neither contributes nor takes away much of anything to/from the feel of the films.

I made the observation that, if this were a video game, I would be casting Wingardium Leviosa on everything. Similar to my fondness for levitation in Morrowind, my enthusiasm for inflicting flotation on others is a matter of both amusement and practicality. Confronted by a three-headed dog sitting on a trap door? Wingardium Leviosa. Attacked by a troll in the bathroom? Wingardium Leviosa. Both you and your club can hang out on the ceiling a while.

Oh, and bathrooms! We didn't realize it at the time, but J.K. Rowling apparently is fascinated by bathrooms. And socks. Or so one of my guests pointed out.

Props to the child actors, by the way. Rupert Grint was especially emotive as Ron Wonderstruck By Everything Weasley. Props also to the casting department; selecting a trio who can effectively and convincingly stay in the shoes of these characters for an entire decade is surely no easy feat. Lastly, props to the props department. Obviously.

One thing that stood out is how neither Draco Malfoy nor Severus Snape ever reached the heights of antagonism one might expect after reading the books. Up until You-Know-Who returns at the end of Book 4, Snape and Malfoy are the real villains of the series, with occasional distractions by the likes of Professor Quirrell and Tom Riddle. At least, that's the way it always appeared to me--the movies, on the other hand, downplay the Malfoy rivalry to an extent, and Snape never once looks like a bad guy (up until the end of the sixth movie) if you can separate poor people skills from villainy.

9:48 AM - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I'm not sure what happened here. I was awake, comfortable, and totally in the marathon zone...but I had enormous difficulties keeping focused. For starters, we had a disorganized start--after shouting at the other viewers a few times that we were STARTING THE MOVIE NOW TEN NINE EIGHT SEVEN SIX, I still got some baffled looks from people wandering in from the kitchen wondering about why I had started without them.

After a while I realized it wasn't just me--it was the movie itself. Whereas the first film flowed rather smoothly from one scene to the next, the second film seemed somewhat scattered, a little unsure of where it was going for a while, and what was important to show. Strange, considering I had previously believed the second movie to be superior to the first in most regards. Random spiders at the scene of the crime? ANOTHER BATHROOM? Alright, so I don't actually have a complaint against the den of Moaning Myrtle, but we started to notice the pattern here.

One of the most disappointing parts of the film--and it almost hurts to say this--was Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart. Now, a decade ago, I would've told you he was my favorite part of the movie. However, following some discussions with my fellow viewers, a consensus arose that Branagh's Lockhart forced his charm on others to make them like him, while Rowling's Lockhart was so self-centered that he couldn't help but suck others in. It's the subtle difference between an arrogant teenager dragging you by the arm, and a black hole. Someone proposed Ewan McGregor as a better fit for the part, and despite the group's deep respect for Kenneth Branagh in his other endeavors, no one seemed to disagree.

What really sealed the Chamber's fate as a low point of the series was the ending, which did not strike me as anything particularly terrible until one of the guests pointed something out to us: there is NO reason for Hagrid to get that kind of applause when he returns. The man was gone for a trivial amount of time, he's ignored, disrespected, or downright hated by half the school, and thoughout the entire movie he did absolutely nothing!!! YAAAAAAY!!! STANDING OVATION FOR HAGRID!!! We were in stitches.

12:37 PM - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The third film, as well as the third book, are my favorite in the series. I always chalked it up to clever time-travel, a good balance of seriousness and good cheer, the Knight Bus, two of my favorite characters from the series--Sirius Black and Remus Lupin--and the wonderfully creepy Dementors. Upon further inspection, I began to understand that my appreciation of the film goes a bit deeper.

I enjoy a certain amount of mystery and surprise in my stories, but I also like to have a sense of direction; within fifteen minutes, the main focus of the movie is clearly in place (with some GREAT setup), and the pacing remains consistently tight throughout the rest of the film. I also enjoy a story where everything matters. From the lesson on riding a Hippogriff to the fleeting glimpse of Lupin's fear when facing the Boggart, details both great and small come full circle, which makes for a very satisfying tale.

The group seemed to agree with me: moving from director Chris Columbus to director Alfonso Cuarón for this film was the right choice.

3:03 PM - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I must have miscounted somewhere, because at the beginning of the third movie we were 22 minutes behind schedule, and now we're only behind by 10. I chalk it up to clever time-travel and good pacing.

One guest celebrated Goblet of Fire as the best in the series, as it was sufficiently mature and dark for her tastes. Given her criteria, I can understand where this film would be a favorite, but given mine...I think only the special effects put this a notch above Chamber of Secrets for me. It didn't help that this is where it was brought to my attention that Cedric Diggory was played by Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame--Diggory was totally hip until I was no longer able to separate the character from the series I'm supposed to be innately angry at despite never having read or watched any of it.

We took this opportunity to make our own butterbeer--a combination of cream soda, butterscotch syrup, and unicorn giggles--which turned out to be the single most delicious thing anyone could have hoped for that wasn't an actual stick of butter in a mug of beer. Which would be pretty terrible, actually.

Our viewing of the film started off disjointedly, and the film itself--directed by a new guy, Mike Newell--felt a bit aimless at first. After the last movie, I had started counting how long it took each film to get to the main plot. Despite the basic explanation of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, I counted 36 minutes until the story finally moved past the exposition phase--more than double the time it took Prisoner of Azkaban to get rolling.

I had difficulty putting my finger on it the first time I saw the movie, but it had always felt a little "off" to me. Part of it was the sluggish start, and part of it was the overwhelmingly darker atmosphere (both visually and figuratively), but the missing part of the equation revealed itself as Angry Dumbledore.

Pick any other movie--any other movie--and Dumbledore is consistently a man who is calm and in control in every circumstance; even when he's losing his mind drinking crummy Horcrux water in the sixth movie, he's at least prepared for it. Here, Dumbledore resolves every situation by shouting until the problem goes away. Monitor the volume and tone of the man's voice; I think you'll find that it never dips below "mildly annoyed at the person across the room."

This must've been the movie I was thinking of when I first decided I preferred Richard Harris as Dumbledore over the man who later inherited the role, Michael Gambon. Looking back, my opinion seems to have been primarily based on my initial interpretation of Dumbledore as merely a kindly old wizard, and on my general resistance to new actors in familiar roles. This time around, Gambon ultimately felt like the right fit for a successor.

The first sign of Marathon Fatigue set in at 4:55 PM: for a brief moment, I caught myself beginning to nod off.

Also...we ended up back in the bathroom again, cracking the mystery of the screaming egg.

5:55 PM - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Dinner arrived in the form of pizzas during this movie, marking the last concerted effort of the day for any kind of special food outside of the snacks already on the table and in the fridge. I was initially concerned about our ability to stay focused without another meal or major snack to boost us, but the cohesiveness of the films from here on out helped the flow of the evening significantly.

For one thing, the last four films were all directed by the same person, David Yeats. For another, the Harry Potter novels were still very much in development when the first four movies were released, and it wasn't always clear which characters and details would be important in later books.

Columbus focused on whatever would make a good tale for the kiddies; Cuarón focused on whatever would allow the movie to stand on its own as a creative work; Newell focused on whatever seemed most likely to be relevant to future sequels; Yates, however, began filming Order of the Phoenix the year before the final book was released, minimizing the amount of guesswork required in his storytelling. The direction and tone of the series were clear from here on out, so Yeats was able to focus on simply telling the rest of the tale.

Order of the Phoenix was and is my next favorite film after Prisoner of Azkaban in large part because of how much detail it manages to cram into such a short amount of time without feeling at all overwhelming. And 17 minutes to get to the main plot? Atta boy, Yeats.

One major observation I made during this film--which seems to apply to all the other films--is that, despite a huge repertoire of magic tricks up their sleeves, not a single wizard can put out fire. Almost without exception throughout the entire series, if something is on fire or surrounded by fire, the heroes are rendered helpless.

If the heroes merely followed my approach to wizarding, they'd be in much better shape. Surrounded by flames? Threatened by Dolores Umbridge? Your cousin Dudley collapsed after a run-in with Dementors and needs to be dragged home? Wingardium Leviosa.

8:15 PM - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Now that the series had settled on just one director, and now that the actors were no longer growing up so rapidly between films, the look and feel of the series was finally settling into a consistent groove. The music, however, became notably repetitive by this point--not only did many of the tunes start to sound the same, but I'm positive I heard some of the more backgroundy ones in previous films. Not a major strike against the films, but definitely a detracting factor.

I found myself having trouble focusing on this one. Actually, upon further inspection, I realized I'd been having difficulties focusing on all the even-numbered movies, and I'd been enjoying all the odd-numbered movies more. This one started off slowly, as did Chamber and Goblet, so I'm thinking it must be an inherent problem with the most plot-intensive installments in the series.

This is the film where the bathroom fad was supplemented by an alarming trend of dead birds. Between Fawkes the phoenix, Headwig later on, and the victims of the Whomping Willow, we began to wonder whether the people responsible for the films had a thing against our fine feathered friends.

During the scene at the end of the film where Harry and Dumbledore take the creepy boat across the creepy lake, I pointed out that they could have avoided the whole miserable situation of almost being pulled under and drowned by the creepy lake creatures if they had only Wingardium Leviosa'd themselves across. Sheesh. These people.

Lastly--and I don't recall whether I misheard, misread, or misspoke this--I have scribbled down in my notes the name "Horace Snugglemouth."

11:14 PM - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

After a few departures between movies, our viewing group was now reduced to half its previous size. We were still awake enough, but the "party" feel had subsided back to "straight-up marathon." It was up to the movies more than the participants to keep the momentum going.

I caught myself momentarily nodding off for the second time at 1:02 AM. Hurry up and kill Voldemort, you guys.

Without the whimsical backdrop of attending classes at Hogwarts, Deathly Hallows - Part 1 felt much closer to a traditional Hollywood movie than something specifically Harry Potter. Removed from their usual context and dressed in civilian clothes, the main actors tended to stand out more than the personalities of their characters. Daniel Radcliffe seemed to have grown out of the role of Harry Potter, while Rupert Grint had completely made Ron his own. Emma Watson still made a convincing Hermione, but Hermione herself had lost her snotty, nerdy edge over the past few movies without seeming to develop or pick up any other traits.

As if to compensate for this, Dobby--finally--left behind his roots as a pale imitation of Jar-Jar Binks and became a real character. When you can get an audience to shed a tear of legitimate sorrow over a grating little elf, you have truly accomplished something.

When you can get an audience to start counting the number of times your characters visit a bathroom, you've accomplished something altogether different. What IS it with these movies!?

1:43 AM - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

I saw both parts of this movie in the theater, and I felt a jarring disconnect--all the character development was in the first film, and all the action was in the second film. The first time around, I enjoyed the first one and found the second one to be too much, too often--not unlike Quantum of Solace.

On a second viewing, also like Quantum of Solace, the second one became more satisfying than the considerably slower first one after I had sorted out my expectations. As the second half of a whole, Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is a satisfying conclusion, but I'm still not convinced it's a necessary one. With the kind of pacing and selective scene trimming exhibited by films 3 and 5, Deathly Hallows could have been a single movie on the order of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: long, but epic enough in scope to warrant the length.

After repeatedly ignoring my peanut gallery suggestions to use Wingardium Leviosa on EVERYTHING, the heroes at last took advantage of the other spell I'd continually pushed for throughout the series: Accio, the summoning charm. The ONE time they decide to use it to find a Horcrux, it doesn't work. Fine, whatever. They then proceed to flood the vault by slogging through self-replicating trinkets that multiply when touched...and all the while, I'm thinking, "You guys could've just Wingardium Leviosa'd yourselves to the ceiling and floated over that mess." Forget these heroes; I'm rooting for Neville Longbottom next time.

At 3:54 AM, more than a full hour after we had originally planned, we shut off the television and lurched toward our respective sleeping spaces to collapse into our respective heaps.

Conclusion

Overall, the marathon was a great success. We not only survived, but I hopefully speak for everyone when I say we had a good time. In many ways, the marathon didn't truly start until the fifth movie--with all the drastic directorial changes, the first four films served more as a foundation for the last four movies than the first half of a series. Still, roughly ten years in the making and without a clear endpoint for most of it, this movie series came together impressively well.

When organizing this event, I billed it as "The Stupidest Thing You Will Do All Year." Twenty hours of continuous Harry Potter? Jamming eight people into a space better suited for five? Consuming unspeakable amounts of junk food and caffeine to stay focused? Well, with good company, thoughtful conversation, and frequent wisecracks, it wasn't so arduous after all--time flies when you use Wingardium Leviosa.

Lost in Space

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I may have mentioned before that movies, television, books, comics, and video games are forms of escapism for me. I enjoy immersing myself in one fantasy world or another not just because it's entertaining, but because sometimes I need a break from the real world. For a few hours last night, I was lost in space.

It started with Out There Somewhere, an indie game I have the pleasure of reviewing for GameCola.net. We occasionally receive review copies of games, as you may recall from my coverage of Gemini Rue and Tobe's Vertical Adventure, and OTS is my latest foray into the realm of attempting to play and review a pre-release game quickly enough for it to still be relevant.

OTS is a fun little puzzle-platformer in the same vein as VVVVVV, and I've been playing for at least a little while every night since I downloaded it. The game takes place on an alien-filled planet, and the hero uses his teleporter gun to leap around, Portal-style, in search of the bad guy. In other words, it's exactly my kind of game. Of all the entertainment I enjoy, I find myself gravitating most strongly toward thinky science-fiction.

Which is why it's appropriate I spent the rest of last night watching Star Trek with my wife.

Two episodes of Deep Space Nine and one episode of Voyager--"Soldiers of the Empire," "Children of Time," and "The Thaw," respectively. Though the Voyager episode suffered from a little bit of questionable science and a few poorly thought-out command decisions (which is typical of the early seasons especially), these episodes were thought-provoking, emotionally impactful, and just plain interesting, making for the greatest night of Star Trek we've had in a long time.

We were hooked, a little more than usual. "Just one more episode," we kept saying, throwing reasonable bedtimes to the wind. The real world would go on without us for a while. We were lost in space.

Gameplaying the Fool

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I don't believe I ever told you about the April Fools' joke I pulled last year.

It started out harmlessly enough--my YouTube playthrough of Mega Man 6 was running way behind schedule, and I had decided to give my anxious viewers a preview of the video I was working on. Nothing too spectacular; a little over a minute of raw footage with no commentary, but visually interesting enough to stand on its own. However, I wasn't just going to hand this over to my fans--if they were that eager to see some new material, then surely they wouldn't mind a scavenger hunt to find it.

Now, one thing that's important to understand is that a number of my viewers like to hang out on my channel, participate in ongoing conversations, and rewatch my videos with some degree of frequency. This is the kind of crowd you need to make a YouTube scavenger hunt work. I made the grand announcement that I had released an unlisted video--one you could only find if you had the video URL--and that I had scattered clues across my channel as to what the URL was.

Here it is in full:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08h2WI_QvY

I explained to my viewers that I had split the link into seven parts. The biggest chunk was easily visible on the main page of my channel; the rest were character pairs (letters, numbers, or symbols) hidden somewhere on the video page for six different videos, one from each Mega Man game I had worked on up to that point. By locating all the URL pieces and assembling them in order, viewers could access my top-secret bonus video. I admitted up front that it was most likely not worth the effort they'd put into finding it, but hopefully the search would be sufficiently entertaining.

I was impressed by the sportsmanship--people largely kept to themselves, and didn't ruin the surprise for anyone. There were a few pieces that people found particularly tricky to locate, but I gradually introduced more clues to point folks in the right direction. The biggest general hint I could give was to look for anything that was out of place.

Some of these were particularly devious.

In my channel profile, I provided the first part of the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

In the description of one of my Mega Man 1 videos, I uncharacteristically ended one of my professional-looking explanatory sentences with the big grinning face emoticon. This emoticon also happened to be the next part of the URL: =D

I made a big deal in one of my videos about how I avoided cluttering up my videos with comment boxes (annotations); I added a comment box to the corner of a Mega Man 2 video with the next part of the URL: 08

I snuck one of the pieces into the title of a video: "Mega Man 3 - Part h2"

One of my video descriptions for Mega Man 4 was slightly altered to discuss: A video review / walkthrough / showoff video of Mega Man 4 (NES), WIth retrospective audio commentary.

Another piece was concealed as a video search tag for one of my Mega Man 5 installments: _Q

The last piece was hidden...somewhere in the description of a Mega Man 6 video, but for the life of me I cannot remember where. Presumably at the beginning or end of a word where I could subtly tack on an extra letter to form the character pair--for example, when talking about vYamato Man. Wherever it was, I recall this being one of the easier pieces to find.

The scavenger hunt went on for a few weeks. On April 1st, with the next official video still a ways away from completion, I decided to go public with the top-secret scavenger hunt video...as an April Fools' joke.

Relatively few of my viewers had successfully located all the parts of the URL and seen the video, so this would be a perfect way to both share the secret with the masses and sucker them in with a gag at the same time. I made it the featured video on my channel, and passed it off as Part 5 (the next installment) of my Mega Man 6 run. The kicker was the video description:

After a series of major setbacks with the recording of my Mega Man 6 commentary, I was forced to either re-record the whole thing or just give up entirely. So, there's no commentary with this video.

It's been a lot of work to put together these videos, and I just don't have the time I used to, so this will probably be the last video I make. Sorry about that.

Disappointment. Tragedy. Outrage. Then the observant folks went on to read the video tags:

* not actually Part 5
* ha ha gotcha
* april fools

Laughter. Relief. Still outrage. A few people don't take kindly to April Fools' jokes. Mine was (inadvertently) extra sneaky because the video posting date wasn't April 1, but in fact March 3, making it appear that much more legit.

Still, as good a prank as I've ever pulled, not to mention the best scavenger hunt I think I've ever thrown. Things to keep in mind for the future, methinks.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 7

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It’s always tough to write a Waiting for on a week where there’s just not that much new stuff that’s interesting to me. While that doesn’t happen all too often, I find myself facing that particular issue right now, actually, as I stare at the little blinking cursor and...well, whisper curses at it.

My list for the weekly comics shop sojourn is awfully short today, and even though there are a couple of books that I’m looking forward to picking up, I guess my comics enthusiasm has been quelled a bit because of stories like this and this, both of which broke over the past week or so.

I’m always saddened by tales of creators losing out on the things they created, and in both of the above cases, that appears to be exactly what’s going on.

I went through—on a much smaller level, mind you—an incident where a character I’d created was being claimed by someone else as their own. And let me tell you—even on the smallest level, that situation is absolutely not fun.

For me it was maddening, and just thinking about it makes me angry all over again.

So when I hear about things like what’s happening to Gary Friedrich—the creator of the most-recognized version of Ghost Rider—I tend to get a bit...punchy. I don’t mean that in the literal sense, but it does annoy me quite a bit thinking about what’s just plain right—if not in the legal sense, then certainly in the moral sense.

And the issues between Walking Dead co-creators Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore—high school friends who are now embroiled in a lawsuit concerning payment over Walking Dead royalties—make me sad, and put a bit of a damper on what was an otherwise excellent mid-season premiere episode of the show.

So, yeah, I’m a bit soured towards comics today.

It’s mind-boggling that basic creator rights issues still take place today in an industry with its fair share of outright creator-rights nightmares. It’s unfair, and frankly, unnecessary. Am I so naïve to think that giant corporations want to protect the properties they own? Of course not. But at the same time, I wish the same giant corporations would give something back to the creators that gave them—and fans—so much during their careers.

Right. I’m off my high horse for today.

As for today’s new comics? Well, quickly, there’s Batman, issue six, from writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, and Wonder Woman, issue six, and both those books deserve lots of attention. Batman, particularly, has been wonderful. There’s also the fourth issue of Richard Moore’s Gobs, and issue nine of Mark Waid’s excellent Daredevil relaunch.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the above comics. So, while I go cool down a bit...what are you Waiting for?

Exfanding Review: Comic Book Men

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

So the mid-season premiere of Walking Dead and the premiere of the new reality series, Comic Book Men, have both come and gone.

Walking Dead absolutely (excuse the pun) killed it, ratings-wise, raking in over 8 million viewers on a night that was dominated by the Grammy Awards (which pulled in close to 40 million viewers). For its part, Comic Book Men did quite well following the zombie phenomenon Sunday night with 2 million viewers.

Reviews of the show, however, have been a mixed bag.

That’s to be expected, I’d say, and while I really enjoyed watching the series premiere and I liked the format of the show, there were times when the action dragged a bit.

But as an introductory episode to a new show, I think Sunday night’s premiere served the series well and I think the show is going to pick up from there.

Part Pawn Stars and part Clerks, Comic Book Men is, admittedly, exactly my kind of thing. So I’m biased, and while I can understand some of the critiques I’ve read (“there are no likeable characters”; “it propagates the ‘comic book guy’ stereotype”), I knew what to expect going in.

The guys on the show are funny, and a lot of their humor revolves around making fun of each other—they’re close friends, and, frankly, that’s what close friends do.

In that sense, Comic Book Men is one of the most “real” of the reality shows on TV—you get the feeling that these guys act this way towards each other with or without the cameras running. And, sure, some of the insults can seem mean-spirited, but if you listen to any of the multitude of View Askew podcasts out there, you’ll know that these guys are actually good friends and they spend a lot of time together.

The biggest surprise for me, actually, was just how much they focused on comic books—I honestly thought the store and the comics would be an afterthought, but in the first episode at least, that stuff was right up front in flashing lights.

So much so, in fact, that I’m not sure how much of a mainstream audience this show can bring in.

I applaud the show for going this route, though, and I will definitely be back for next week's episode.

Wrestling with the Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

As you may have noticed if you've been following the blog these past few months, my blogging buddy Alex has been writing about wrestling a bit more that usual (read: at all). Traditionally, I'm the one to foist my fandoms on Alex (as was the case with Star Wars and Firefly), and traditionally, Alex is the one who misses the boat when it's his turn to make me watch Kevin Smith films (which I'm still waiting on, by the way). So, I figured I'd take it upon myself to exfand my horizons.

Between my grandfather and my middle school friends, I received enough of an exposure to know who some of the big names were in wrestling--Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Sgt. Slaughter, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Undertaker, Big Show, Triple H, etc.--but I was always on the sidelines of the fandom. I'd seen a few matches here and there, and had sat in on plenty of conversations, but there were still huge gaps in my education. Names like CM Punk and Mick Foley meant absolutely nothing to me when Alex brought them up in posts over the past year.

Poking around Netflix yielded exactly the kind of learning tools I'd been hoping for: WWE: Top 50 Superstars of All Time and OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History. Learn who the major players are, and then learn about the biggest events that have defined their universe--just like I've been doing with comics. So far this has proven to be an effective way of surveying fandoms, and my 4-1/2 hours of immersion in all things wrestling was no different.

Top 50 Superstars was interesting, celebrating fifty of the most popular, successful, controversial, and influential professional wrestlers from the past six decades, as chosen by the WWE's 2010 roster.

There was Killer Kowalski with his murderously large hands; The Fabulous Moolah, who, in addition to having a fantastic name, stayed involved in the business for decades; Ric Flair, who's exactly as flamboyant as his name suggests; Mr. Perfect, who did this incredibly impressive--and perfect--pencil twirl on live TV; "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, who perfectly embodied the excess of the 1980s; Bob Backlund, the guy who held the championship title forever; and Kane, who's just plain scary.

I was impressed by the grace, style, creativity, and skill of the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Rey Misterio, Randy Orton, John Cena, and Edge. I was fascinated by the parts that Gorilla Monsoon, Iron Sheik, and Gorgeous George played in the history and culture of wrestling. I was amused by the strong personalities of Rick Rude and Rowdy Roddy Piper, and charmed by Junkyard Dog, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, and, yes, Mick Foley. After a segment on Shawn Michaels, preceded by snippets of interviews with CM Punk (among others) about these superstars, I was finally able to return to this post and this post and get all of Alex's references.

Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. I still had OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History to watch before that could happen. Superstars left me with that warm feeling of, "this is a cool fandom; I could get into this." OMG!, while informative, left me with that warm feeling in my stomach of being violently ill.

It started with the theme music: Some rapper shouting "OH MY GOD!" and nothing but "OH MY GOD!" for what felt like a whole sixty seconds (which, in reality, was probably closer to only a minute). I expected this grating introduction to be followed by a show similar to Superstars--a comprehensive look at the most outrageous, unexpected, and significant moments of the past six decades of wrestling history. Instead, I got everything Stone Cold Steve Austin ever did throughout his entire career, plus that one time in 1984 where Roddy Piper smashed a coconut on Jimmy Snuka's head.

To top it all off, each of the 50 incidents was introduced with "OH MY GOD!" and the same ten or twenty seconds of obnoxious vamping from the song. I was ready to pull a Tim White by the end of it, and the fact that I even know what I'm referencing somewhat disgusts me.

I get that these were supposed to be the most shocking moments in wrestling, and I freely acknowledge that I'm a little sensitive about certain matters and a little squeamish about others. I was on board with anything that was extra theatrical for the sake of looking cool--like Jeff Hardy getting caught in the explosion of his own pyrotechnics, or Brock Lesnar collapsing the entire ring with a superplex, which was awesome--but so many of these incidents were just disturbing to me.

Impaling Randy Orton on a floor full of thumbtacks? Humiliating the tiny Haiti Kid by hoisting him up and shaving his head? Destroying aisle after aisle of a grocery store just to beat somebody up? Kidnapping the chairman's daughter and forcing her into some kind of unholy marriage rite? Driving away from a funeral you've interrupted with the coffin dragging from your truck?

These things look innocuous and even slightly silly in writing, but they made my skin crawl when watching them. Whether or not they were staged is beside the point; I was floored by the number of children I saw in the crowds--small children, at that--and glorifying these ideas with that kind of audience is downright twisted.

After watching the Superstars show, I had a debate with my wife--she argued that wrestling was senselessly violent, and I argued that it's really no different than any other violence taken out of context. Each of these characters in the ring has their own motives and backstories that are driving them to hit Jimmy Snucka with a coconut; The Dark Knight looks pretty senseless, too, if you only see the part where that dude gets stabbed through the hand with a pencil. The violence itself might still be distasteful to you, but it's unfair to judge it as senseless without the proper context.

After watching OMG!, I wasn't sure where I stood in that argument anymore.

The wrestling I remember from what I caught on television was good old-fashioned beatings. Some theatrics, to be sure, but nothing more outrageous than swinging around a steel chair or slamming someone against the wall of a cage--it's all blunt force trauma anyhow, whether you're using your hands or falling on people from the rafters. Barbed wire on a baseball bat? Well, maybe that's just me being squeamish.

What makes this so difficult for me--and what makes wrestling the spectacle it is--is how tough it can be to determine exactly what's real and what's just for show. There's a visceral thrill in the uncertainty of it all. If somebody gets tackled on a football field, you know the kind of injuries to expect. If somebody gets tortured in a movie, you can be confident it's all just make-believe. If "Macho Man" Randy Savage gets bitten by a snake in a wrestling ring, your imagination runs wild with possibilities, foiling all attempts to properly rationalize what's just happened.

Even with all the stomach-churning moments I endured throughout OMG!, I'm glad to have had the exposure; this blog was founded on the principle of promoting an understanding between geeks, and this is one fandom where I've been out of the loop for some time, and to a bigger degree than I ever realized. Am I an expert yet? By no means. But I finally understand what it means to be the "Heartbreak Kid," and I think that counts for something.

Exfanding Radar: Comic Book Men

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Tonight, Walking Dead premieres on AMC. And, while that is zombie-shamblingly awesome, it's what comes on after Walking Dead that I'm really excited about.

Now, don't get me wrong--I love AMC's adaptation of the zombie neo-classic. But, tonight at 10:00 ET on that same network, the new reality series, Comic Book Men, will premiere.

Produced by Kevin Smith and starring View Askewniverse favorites Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson (better known to Mallrats fans as Fanboy and Steve-Dave), Comic Book Men promises to be an interesting cross between Antiques Roadshow and, well, I'm not quite sure what else, actually.

As a fan of the podcast, Tell 'Em Steve-Dave! (which stars Flanagan and Johnson), I can tell you this--when those guys get together, it's going to be funny. And cynical. And awesome. And, dare I say, even pretty cool.

A comic book show that's going to make comic book people look like the heroes? Yes, please.

And as far as lead-ins go, Comic Book Men has a good one with Walking Dead and its 8 million viewers. Here's hoping a sizable number of those viewers stick around to give the new series a shot, because I think these guys are going to be endearing both to comics people and to the mainstream.

So give Comic Book Men a chance, and let us know what you think of the show tomorrow. I'm sure there will be a review of some kind from me sometime in the near future. Probably.

Right after I finish up that whole 2011 Year in Review thingy.

Right.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Creators vs. Creator Rights

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Something interesting happened yesterday. Not so much an "oh, hey that's cool" kind of interesting; more like an "oh, hey that's kinda disheartening" kind of interesting. It was reported by a number of sources that Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman is being sued by illustrator (and fellow co-creator) Tony Moore.

This is disheartening for a number of reasons, especially considering the truly independent nature of Walking Dead.

When a little black and white indie can beat all the odds and not only become a success in the comics industry, but also on television? A black and white book that found a way to rise to pop cultural prominence while the vast majority of indie projects don't even get published?

That's reason to celebrate; it's an achievement few have ever seen realized, and it's just plain good news for comics.

So when the news hit yesterday that Moore was suing Kirkman for, essentially, cutting him out of all profits made on the television series, it kind of sours you to the book and to the series. I love Walking Dead--I'm not a huge zombie fan, but this book has managed to captivate my attention and keep me coming back for more.

For his part, Tony Moore is credited as co-creator, and he is the artist of the first six issues as well as the first 18 covers to the series. Since issue seven, artist Charlie Adlard has drawn the series, but really, when you're talking about creator's rights, who came next is irrelevant (even though Adlard's contributions to the series have, obviously, been substantial).

The real crux of Moore's beef with Kirkman is that, in 2005, Moore agreed to give Kirkman his share of the rights in exchange for a piece of their earnings. Moore claims that he has not received the money owed him, and that Kirkman has not allowed him access to the Walking Dead financial statements, as was agreed to in 2005.

Kirkman and his lawyers deny what Moore and his lawyers are alleging, and really, this whole thing is just plain messy.

There's not enough information out there yet for me to come down on one side of this battle. I know there's been quite a bit of back and forth online amongst both creators and fans, but I'd rather not jump into that particular abyss.

I certainly have an opinion on the matter, but it's just based off what I've read online, which, clearly, is not the whole story. That's going to play out in court, and it's going to take a whole lot of time and money. Ideally, Kirkman and Moore--friends since high school--can come to some sort of agreement.

In the comics industry especially, where we've seen similar, legendary disputes in the past (Kirby vs. Marvel, anyone?), it's just...unfortunate that stuff like this still has to happen. Here we are, one day away from the mid-season premiere of Walking Dead's second season, and the Internet is ablaze with talk of a potentially ugly legal battle over rights instead of talking about the last half of this season's show.

It stinks, and I hope it finds a way to resolution. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Top 10 Food-Based Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I'm a sucker for puns, so I figured I'd share this link with you. Courtesy of random.access, the website of fellow GameCola staff writer Jeff Day and "resident female visionary" Beverly Anger, comes the...

Top 10 Food-Based Movies

Float On

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I've been playing more of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and I came across what I thought was the most exciting glitch I could have hoped for.

On a pilgrimage to various holy sites across a vast continent, my hero came across an altar at which I needed to sacrifice that which was most precious to me: a potion of levitation. Given how many steep cliffs and mountain ranges have blocked my path in my exploration of this 3-D fantasy world and the relative rarity of this type of potion (at least, when you only obtain potions by stealing them from unsuspecting townsfolk who have left their bedrooms without posting a guard), I was reluctant to part with my precious potion.

I did it anyhow. Not that I'm after 100% completion of this expansive game's sidequests, but I've committed myself to at least a few missions outside of the main quest. I'd already learned a levitation spell, and would no doubt find another potion or two eventually--I could live without it.

I placed the potion at the altar. Swirly special effects ensued, and I was suddenly propelled backwards. I attempted to leap forward again to see what had happened--I don't run; I jump everywhere, simply because it's fun--and found that I couldn't jump anymore. Well, that was it. Quickload my previous game, and we'd try it again.

Except...I didn't quickload my game. I discovered why I couldn't jump: I was already floating in the air.

Conveniently, there was a low-hanging moon hovering overhead that I had been curious about visiting, so I floated up there. Sort of a prison carved into an airborne rock; very cool. At this point, I thought I had somehow glitched myself into the sky, so I figured I'd just run (well, fly) with it until the effects began to hamper my questing.

I opened the door to the prison, and immediately found myself hampered. People apparently don't like you just barging into their floaty top-security prison, and angry workers started shouting for the guards to take me away. With such a low ceiling, I was no better off levitating than standing on solid ground, except for the part where any door frame or table corner would catch my leg, and I'd get stuck trying to slowly maneuver myself around it.

I hadn't even pointed myself in the direction of the exit before the guards took me down.

Well, that was probably for the best. A glitch like that could completely wreck my chances of finishing this game. I'd just reload my save right before placing the potion on the altar and...

BOOM. Launched backwards again. Weightless once more.

This time, I decided to put the glitch to better use--getting a bird's eye view of the areas on the map I'd never visited. I set out for the tiny islands to the south. I'd recently tried to swim to a few of them, but found I couldn't swim fast enough to avoid a conflict every two minutes with one creepy sea creature or another; this might be the only time I'd have a compelling reason to continue exploring there unless the main quest demanded it.

I saw the islands. I was pecked at by birds. I kept flying. This must be a glitch, I thought; no spell or effect I'd encountered aside from a few crippling diseases had lasted so long, and even the diseases and poisons had remedies. Chronic fly-itis? No cure that I could find.

Not that I was complaining--by now I was headed off to the eastern reaches of the continent to see what else there was to see. I've always found a fair amount of joy in exploring the various locations in any given roleplaying game, but Morrowind has been especially satisfying because there are so many places to go, and virtually every session I play has me filling in huge portions of my world map. The ability to fly so quickly and effortlessly was something I'd been longing for ever since buying that levitation spell, which consumes my entire magic meter and lasts for only a matter of seconds, assuming it works at all. For the most part, I was incredibly happy.

However, I felt like this was taking something away from my gaming experience.

Had I received a message saying, "Hey! Congratulations! Your offering at the altar has been rewarded with 24 hours of continuous levitation. Use it well!", then I'd've been in hog heaven. Flying hog heaven. And you know what kinds of things finally happen when pigs fly. But I was under the impression I had accidentally broken my game, and was inadvertently cheating my way through it. I didn't need to cheat. I began to feel guilty about skipping out on the sweat and labor that go into real exploration.

But hey, I got to visit a sweet tower that didn't give you any way to the top except flying.

After doodling around in the tower for a while, I started to wonder if this was wise--what if something was going to trigger this glitch to go away? Should I really be wasting this valuable gift on random tiny sidequests that I swore I'd only take on if they were incredibly easy or convenient? Shouldn't I be charting a path to the Red Mountain or seeing how far over the ocean I can soar before hitting an invisible wall?

It was around this point that I finally noticed the little "You are levitating with 100% efficacy" icon at the bottom of my screen. OK, so this wasn't a glitch. Oops. Still, I'd traveled a quarter of the way across the continent! Surely this magic would end soon!

It did. I suddenly fell out of the sky. Unfortunately, I was hovering a short distance over a mountain at the time; I was kinda hoping for a grand Wile E. Coyote moment where I realize there's no ground underneath me and plummet to the bottom of a ravine, leaving a mushrooming dust cloud in my wake and a nice, big "poof" sound effect. Actually, it's more like a "pif" or a "paf," isn't it?

Ah, but I digress. I was a mere mortal again, standing on top of some mountain in who-knows-where territory. But hey, there was a cool statue on top of a sanctuary there.

Is there a point to this story? There probably was initially. But, like my mysterious levitation ability, I completely lost it.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 6

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:40:00 +0000

As I inch ever closer towards getting my act together and finally compiling my picks for our 2011 Year in Review post (yeah, I know, shameful on my part), I've managed to become distracted by something (else).

I'm currently reading Ray Bradbury's book of essays, Zen in the Art of Writing, featuring--you guessed it--thoughts on writing from one of the all-time giants.

I'm only through the first two essays, but Bradbury has already managed to amaze me with his use of language and with his viewpoint on the craft of writing. In the book, he provides some incredible insight, and as always, Bradbury presents and arranges his thoughts and words unlike anyone else.

One passage, in particular, is sticking in my mind this morning:

"For the first thing a writer should be is--excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God know it'd be better for his health."

Pretty great, right? I love that--"a thing of fevers and enthusiasms."

I'll probably write a bit more about the book once I've finished it, but for now I'll leave you with that passage, and I'll (gracefully) transition to this week's comic that I'm most excited about.

From Dark Horse, Conan the Barbarian, issue one, ships today. Written by Brian Wood (New York Four, DMZ, Demo) and with art by the incomparable Becky Cloonan (Wolves, American Virgin), this latest Conan launch is greatly anticipated.
While I may not be the world's biggest Conan fan, I am a huge fan of both Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. And when they get together on a comic book, it's usually akin to magic.

Here's the solicitation information from Dark Horse:

In this sweeping adaptation of Robert E. Howard's fan-favorite "Queen of the Black Coast," Conan turns his back on the civilized world and takes to the high seas alongside the pirate queen Bêlit, setting the stage for an epic of romance, terror, and swashbuckling. This is Conan as you've never seen him, with the combination of one of Robert E. Howard's greatest tales and the most dynamic creative team in comics!

* A perfect jumping-on point for new readers!

*A bold, fresh take on the Cimmerian.

* "Queen of the Black Coast" is the most-requested Conan adaptation!

You can check out a preview of the book right here. I even went so far as to pre-order this, something I typically don't do for books from the bigger publishers.

But I think this book is going to be great, as Wood is perfectly suited to take on the barbarian, as evidenced by his excellent work on the viking-centric Northlanders from Vertigo.

So check it out when you head out to the store today. But before you do that--what are you Waiting for?

Juggling Fatigue

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I think...I just need some time to recover.

Extensive apartment cleaning. A Harry Potter marathon this weekend. More thought-intensive or generally draining comments here and on the YouTube channel than usual. More footage than I've ever had for a YouTube video, and more footage than I've ever needed to trim out. More ongoing work on detail-heavy writing projects than usual. More social interaction than I've had in months, outside of holidays and special occasions.

I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not even all that busy, compared to last year. I think...I just need some time to recover. Rather, I just need to bring a few of these ongoing projects to a close. It's tough to pick up a project after having neglected it in favor of other projects, but it can be just as tough to keep several projects moving, slowly, at once. I'd rather take more time to complete all my projects rather than focus only on one or two and risk forgetting about the others, but I can feel myself stretching a little far, and I could use a little time to recover.

But, Really, What Do I Know?

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:04:00 +0000

So, fine, maybe my prognostication skills need some improvement. Despite my predictions to the contrary, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots last night to claim their second title of the Tom Coughlin-Eli Manning era.

Both those Super Bowl victories have come against the Patriots and their legendary quarterback, Tom Brady, and both victories came in nail-biting fashion with last-minute heroics from Eli and the Giants.

For my part, I managed to pretty much get everything wrong, as even my two Super Bowl Box Pools proved to be against me. Sure, they're completely random, but still.

I had a shot at winning one of them, when the Giants went for a two-point conversion with less than a minute to play. Had they executed the conversion, I would have won this, a Joker 1:4 Scale Museum Quality Statue, the final score prize offered by the pool at a local shop:
And, fine, I would have had absolutely nowhere to put this 19-inch Joker statue, but c'mon--it's awesome!

So the Pats shouldn't feel too bad--clearly, I was the biggest loser yesterday.

Super Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:56:00 +0000

So...there's a game on today. As excited as I am for the actual day and all its food and things, I really don't care about the game itself. See, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan, so, naturally, I hate the Giants.

And, being a New York Yankees fan, I'm not allowed to root for any team located in Massachusetts.

So, yeah, I hate both teams.

Or, at least, I'm supposed to hate both teams. But it's impossible to hate a guy like Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots who went through college and his earliest professional days as an underdog.

Yep, the best quarterback of my generation--and one of the greatest in NFL history--started his career as an underdog.

In college, at Michigan, Brady was seen as a run-of-the-mill passer, and everyone from the head coach down wanted to see the QB relegated to second-string so freshman phenom Drew Henson could have more playing time.

It's an interesting story, and one retold in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated.

Brady, as he's done his entire career, sucked it up, figured it out, and won the starting job. He learned to read and anticipate defenses better than anyone else in the college game, and he was able to translate those skills to what has become a legendary pro career.

Tonight he plays in his fifth Super Bowl. He's won three of the four he's previously appeared in, losing to the New York Giants in one of the most memorable games in many years.

That season, the Pats were undefeated going into the Super Bowl; they were clear-cut favorites and a shoo-in to win. Then, the impossible happened and the Giants pulled a win out of--well, you know where.

Maybe Brady just wasn't used to being the favorite. Maybe he wasn't comfortable in the role of Apollo Creed.

That night, Rocky won.

Tonight, though? Well, tonight I don't think I would bet against Brady, even though his Pats are once again (slightly) favored.

It's an interesting matchup, made especially compelling because of the teams' Super Bowl history. But the Giants beat the Pats before, and I just can't imagine Tom Brady allowing that to happen twice.

Before Before Watchmen, Some Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:50:00 +0000

Since Nathaniel is busy um, Harry Pottering this weekend, I'll be in charge of the ol' blog. Good for me, not so good for clear-thinking individuals the world over.

Today's topic of conversation? What else? Before Watchmen.

DC's announcement this week that they will be publishing brand new prequels to the most critically acclaimed comics work of all time has the entire Internet ablaze with overreaction, under reaction, and, well, more overreaction.

Which has me thinking--with Internet fervor the way it is, would the original Watchmen have seen this kind of scrutiny when it was coming out had there been such a forum? What about Dark Knight Returns, for that matter? One of the most heralded Batman stories ever, seemingly loved by everyone who comes across it. Would Dark Knight have been blasted for its weird, old-guy version of Bruce Wayne?

I'm gonna bet it would have been.

So, fine, let's discredit the most vociferous of Internet hostilities towards Before Watchmen, because, frankly, who cares what a crazy person online has to say about anything? Personally, I think it's fine that DC has decided to go this route--looking at it from a strictly business perspective, it makes sense.

Watchmen is one of DC's most profitable properties; milking it for all it's worth is only natural, especially in the current publishing landscape. And if I know anything, I know the current publishing landscape. Publishers the world over are much more interested in the "safe bet" than they are in the new and the different.

That's one of the reasons I left the industry--safe bets are great for the short term, but in the long run it's the big, new ideas that make a difference. And, not to mention, fortunes.

But I can't fault DC for going back to the well here. Frankly, I'm shocked it took them this long to do it. Before Watchmen is going to make money--lots of it. Even the weaker books in the series will do well, just because comics fans can't help themselves. Even if they voice an opinion to the contrary, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the loudest critics of the series will be there to pick it up when it launches.

Why? Because we're comics fans; we have to know.

I'm interested in three or four of the titles, and I plan on giving them a shot. Do I wish maybe DC had gone another direction in their publishing plans? Sure; new titles with new characters doing new things would be great. But also risky.

Too risky for this current economy.

Further, I'd much rather see new creators emerge in the industry than have publishers continually go back to the (seemingly) 20 or so creators that generate the most product in comics today.

Part of the initial attraction of DC's New 52 was the promise that there would be new blood injected in lots of classic titles. I've said it before, but it's an evergreen argument: The comics industry is notorious for not allowing new members into the clubhouse.

We see it all the time, but it's hard to argue against going with a creator who has a proven track record of sales.

Like I said, this isn't restricted to comics--it's all over publishing, and television, and the movies. In comics, certain titles with certain creators have a known number of sales, even before the book is solicited. Like all publishers, projected numbers are the most important part in getting something green lit.

Sure, sometimes there's something so revolutionary that even the tightest suit in the room will agree to go forward, even if there's not the promise of a huge financial return. But for the most part, safe is best.

Unfortunately, though, years from now no one will be talking about the great business sense of publishers. However, they will still be talking about the editor who signed Harry Potter from an unknown woman with crazy ideas.

I wish it were the other way around, though. I wish we could all learn the names of all the editors who passed up that book when it came across their slush piles (you know, the ones they're too busy to read?).

On that note, I can just hear Frank Miller's Dark Knight pitch meeting, had it taken place two months ago rather than 20 years ago:

Editor: "So, um. Cool concept, Frank. But, can we make him look like Batman?"

Frank: "Meaning...?"

Editor: "Meaning, he's all...old...and stuff. Can't make toys of an old Batman, ya know."

Frank: "Good point. How about we make him really young, and really crazy? He can kidnap Robin and yell at him!"

Editor: "Brilliant!"

Frank: "Also, can there be dinosaurs?"

Editor: "Funny you should mention that..."

Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Post

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It's here. Well, it's almost here. Or it is here. Or it's already done.

That Harry Potter marathon I promised.

Expect a full write-up in a few days. I'm sure I'll need some time to recover--that's 19 hours and 38 minutes of continuous wizarding!

GameCola Recap: January 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Flashman85) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Despite my best efforts, I'm back down to just two contributions to videogame humor website GameCola.net this past month. One of which barely counts. The other of which...also barely counts. It's more like a cameo, really. OK, so not my most prolific month. Still, I think it's pretty fun material to check out. Behold, 'tis January!

Column:

- Q&AmeCola: Movie Games

Videos:

- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 5

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:40:00 +0000

We interrupt this regularly scheduled Waiting for Wednesday to bring you the following.

DC Comics is officially publishing Watchmen prequels, all under the name, "Before Watchmen."

Who says there are no new ideas in comics today, right?

Snarky comments aside, this is pretty big news--it's all over the Internet this morning, and it's been picked up by a bunch of major outlets. Watchmen is, of course, a watershed achievement in comics history, considered by many to be the greatest comic book of all time.

The graphic novel collections are an enormous source of revenue for DC's back list and is a huge source of pride for the company. Returning to the franchise, then, is a big decision that DC hopes will bring in big sales.

What perhaps makes this even more intriguing, though, is the fact that the book's author, Alan Moore, has quite famously been opposed to any kind of follow-up, tie-in, or prequel to the original series. Moore also quite famously refused to endorse the feature film that was released a few years ago, having nothing whatsoever to do with its production.

Alan Moore's take on this will, I'm sure, be big news in the days to come.

As for the forthcoming prequels themselves, there will be eight in total, highlighted by a Rorschach series by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo; a Minutemen series written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke; a Silk Spectre series written by Cooke with art by Amanda Conner; and most surprisingly, an Ozymandius series by original Watchmen editor Len Wein and drawn by Jae Lee.

Personally, I'm not offended by the idea of prequels, as I hold fast to the theory that, no matter how continuity may change, the original story remains exactly as it was. As long as I own the graphic novel by Moore and Dave Gibbons, I can read it any time I want.

And, frankly, I plan to give a couple of these new books a shot--I'm especially interested in the Rorschach book, as Azzarello and Bermejo have made some incredible comics together.

How about you guys? Any thoughts on the big announcement?