It was noted on Infoceptor that LOTR would need to win all 11 Oscars to match Titanic.

Yep.

They got it...

...

I'm guessing that the academy was looking at the entire series for most of that, cause its basically one 10 hour movie.

Okay, what is it with the Documentary Feature winners and speaking out against war?

The Fog of War maker, who won best Documentary Feature, decided to make a rather passive remark against the whole Iraq situation.

I think Billy Crystal put it best: "I can't wait for his tax audit!" :)

I love the AFL :).

For those who don't know, the AFL is the Arena Football League. Its basically the winter/spring football league.

Its sorta like football, except only a 50 yard field, half as wide as an NFL field, always played indoors, walls to signify the sidelines, and only 8 players on the field.

Players aren't as good, defense tends to suck, but its pretty fun to watch, especially since its really easy to score. No 90 yard drives to score. Hell, they never even punt!

Yeah, its not REAL football, but still a fun thing to watch. Think XFL, except more exciting and good.

Well, crap.

Turns out that I can't volunteer for FIRST this year. UCI isn't giving us a week off, only monday and tuesday after finals.

I'll still come up after my finals are over. Still, I only have 6 days off between quarters, including weekend, and that's only because my finals end on wednesday.

If I drive, that basically designate two days for "travel days", only leaving four...

...

Uhh, parent-folk, if you want to volunteer to buy a plane ticket home for me, it'd be really nice :).

I'll live without my computer. I don't know how, but somehow I'll manage...

LOL!

Just saw the first political commercial on TV for the Primaries.

It was for Kucinich...

LOL!

He's got what, 6 delegates?

Yep, another gay marraige comic....

NOTE: In a few days the link will be this.

Its nice to know that most of the online community agrees that this amendment is a very bad idea. I think that's why the conservatives are trying to get this amendment passed: Because they've realized that younger people are more likely to be liberal and, as such, in favor of Gay Marriage. Eventually Gay Marriage will be an ok thing in the US.

Eventually is the key word tho...

Another gay marriage related web comic!

BIIIIIIG topic right now...

Filibuster on the Same-Sex Marriage Amendment

Just thought it was rather relevant, and accurate, too!

Well, unless you've had your head in the ground, you've probably heard about Bush supporting a Same-Sex Marriage amendment.

Now, one thing to note is that it leaves Same-Sex Civil Unions alone. It allows the states to define it.

So, if the amendment is passed, and all the states agree to full rights for same-sex partners in civil unions, we'd have two separate institutions of unions, but are equal.

Separate...

but equal...

Hmm. That worked well before! [/sarcasm]

Don't worry tho. The Democrats at large are against this amendment, so the Republicans will need to pull at least ten dems over in the senate without losing any of their own, and even then many Republicans do NOT like the idea of an amendment on this topic.

Relax, Liz. Bush won't win this one.

UCI Staff Partake in Same-Sex Marriages

Just... so... perfect :).

The New University is UCI's newspaper, btw.

Of course, one of the people who got married is the director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual Resource Center :).

Penny Arcade on Infinium Labs vs. HardOCP.

BTW: Infinium is making the Phantom Console, which has yet to appear anywhere, and would cost about 400-500 dollars. For context, X-Boxes and PS2's are $179, and Gamecubes are $99.

In case you haven't heard, the website HardOCP is being threatened by Infinium Labs for supposedly false and deflamatory statements made in an article they published several months ago which looked at the vaporious nature of Infinium Labs. Infinium has two different law firms doing this, IcardMirrell and MoFo. Basically, they're serious.

Except for the fact that there's been no one who's actually proved anything in the article in question false. In fact, most people who've read the article agree that its correct.

Undoubtedly Infinium is trying to scare HardOCP into pulling the article from their website, in order to prevent people from reading the article, and also in an attempt to disprove it. HardOCP handled it masterfully, by not pulling the article and instead renewing an offer made to Infinium when the article was published to dispute the findings via proof. And, thanks to the wonder of t3h int3rn3t, the story is being spread far and wide, thanks partly to this article by NewsForge, summarizing the conflict quite well, as well as a few other things to note about the Phantom.

Then SlashDot posts it, PA does a comic on it, and the story continues to spread. This is the information superhighway, where one stupid move by a company can have huge repercussions in only a matter of days.

Read the articles. Its quite informative, quite intresting, and a bit funny at times too :).

Ya know, articles like this are why I love California:

Lockyer rejects halt to nuptials.

It looks like Arnold is finally learning about what he can actually do as Governor:

1: Veto laws.
2: Sign laws.
3: Not much else.

Look, here's the main beef I have with all of the complaints by Bush and Arnold about the evil Activist Judges: The US is not based entirely on majority rule! The US system is based heavily on the teachings of John Locke. He basically taught that the strong will always oppress the weak. ALWAYS. A rather cynical view, but rather accurate.

Thus, our founding fathers installed the famed system of checks and balances. The general principal of our government is that it serves the majority, while protecting the rights of the minority. Hence the Senate's filibuster, which allows a minority (40%) to prevent the majority (60%) from voting on a law.

Now, the voters can not always be depended on to do the right thing. So the Judicial Department has the ability to override any laws that are contested in a court of law. This basically gives some of the most inteligent, well educated, and noblest people in the nation the ability to do what is right. This is a good thing in the long run, if a somewhat annoying thing in the short run.

Basically, the whole point of the judicial system in the government is to enforce the laws and interpret the constitution. And if the constitution and the law contradicts, the constitution has first strike.

And, now, the judges have the opportunity to do the right thing. What I think of as the right thing, is of course, my opinion, but I have difficulty believing that the judges will uphold prop 22 for any reason other than strict adherence to the constitution. Either way, this is one of their duties: To uphold the constitution. If by upholding the constitution they strike down a law and enable a formerly illegal practice to be legal, then that's what they have to do.

On a slightly related note, I have to admit that it is occasionally erie to be witnessing events that I know will be in the history books ten years out. Its this switch from reading about history to seeing it take place. This is sort of the third time I've felt this: 2000 election and 9/11 are the others. Its seeing an event that will shape what is to come unfold right before your eyes.

Truly a wonderful thing, in a sense.

Addition to my post listing my presents:

I was wrong. I DO have a week's worth of nerd tshirts! I got PA's Wang Fu shirt, too!

F34R MY UB3R L33T N3RD W4RDR0B3!

More webcomics!

In case you somehow forgot, I read a lot of web comics. Well, in the last month or two, there's been a few additions and changes.

First off, the list is now at 49. I remember when I knew the web addresses for each webcomic I read. Now I'm lucky if I can remember half of them...

Second, there's been a few comics removed from the list:

Resident Life: Its been down for a while now, and it is showing no signs of coming back up.

D+pad: DOA. Its basically dead too.

Reality Glitch: It wasn't very good to begin with, and it never got better. Its a shame, but what you gonna do?

Movie Comics: Unfortunately, this one ended. Its actually sad, because this was one of the best webcomics out there, and now its gone :(.

Bob and NYM: Stopped updating a while ago, and no signs it will start back up.

<_<.

>_>.

*throws old comics out the window*

Now, there's been some changes to the "new comic days" for some of the strips:

Ctrl+Alt+Del: M/W/F -> M/W/F/Sa

RPG World: M/F -> M/W/F

Mac Hall: M/F -> Occasionally (<1/week)

Warbucket: M/W/F -> Occasionally (about 2/week)

Now, finally, new Comics!

Note about notation: Fiction means the comic is story based, non-fiction means its based on current events, full of one shots, and semi-fiction means it has some story arcs, but only 4-5 comic ones usually. Most of these are 1 or 2 shots about current events.

College Roomies From Hell: 9/10. Fiction, Superhero. This is a rather old one, one that I had looked a few times, but didn't like the art. Well, the art got a lot better, and, despite what you may think given the title, this is more of a superhero comic. Except not. Its got a great storyline, once you get a few months in, and is well worth a read. BTW: there's about 4-5 years of archives.

Basil Flint: 7/10. Fiction, Dectective, Humor. This is about a detective who lost his wife/partner on a case many years ago, started to drink, and in the current day he's starting to get his life back together while staring through the bottom of a glass. It isn't exactly film noir, tho, as it pokes fun at the Detective genre, and has had several good art styles over the years. Pretty good, and will likely get better.

GU Comics: 8/10. Non-fiction, Gaming, Humor. A single-panel comic that pokes fun at the many MMORPG's out there. For me its a 7/10, since I get only a few of the jokes, but I can see a big MMORPG player loving this comic.

Questionable Content: 8/10. Fiction?, Music, Computers, Humor. This is a very new one, so it really doesn't have a set genre yet. The characters seem to be really into indie music and computers, and there's a budding romance coming into play, but its direction is still rather open. Still, very well done.

Adventurers!: 9/10. Fiction, Final Fantasy Games, Humor. Long running comic which does basically the same thing as RPG World, make fun of the Final Fantasy games. However, this one seems to be staying true to its roots, while RPG World is veering off into plot heavy times. Either way, this is made by the same guy as Antihero for Hire, so you know its good :).

9th Elsewhere: 8/10. Fiction, Drama, writing. I have a thing for dramatic webcomics done in anime art style. I admit it. Still, this one is pretty damn good. Pretty new, its about a muse and his charge, as they try to find herself inside her psyche. I suggust reading it, as it has a very nice story, as well as excelent characters.

I'm Blue: 8/10. Semi-Fiction, gaming, humor. A nice one about a gamer, in college, who is also very tech savy and inteligent, and slightly psychotic. Oh, yes, THAT one :). This one does have the main character be female, though. Seriously tho, this comic has a lot of wit in it, good commentary on current games, as well as one of the greatest story arcs ever: The iMac toss :).

The Midlands: 9/10. Fiction, Drama, Fantasy (sorta). Remember what I said about dramatic webcomics done in an anime art style? Yeah, here's another. This one, tho, is very, very well done. Excelent characters, beautiful storyline, and a very original premise: Take a fantasy environment, and move it into the present. Elves, magic, all that are here, with tech too! Extremely well done.

Exterminatus Now: 7/10. Fiction?, humor, arcane. This comic uses the Sonic art style, not the actual sprites, but hand drawn panels. Anyway, this is very new, and so far is about cops who fight mystical crime. It makes more sense in the comic, really. Its been pretty funny so far, and will likely be very good.

Red vs Blue: 10/10. Fiction, Humor, Halo/Military. This isn't really a comic. The makers of Red vs Blue used the game Halo to "film" their comic. It makes good fun of armed forces and Halo, with good humor, and is funny every week. The archives are not accessable without paying, however, so if you really want to see them, and you're family/friends, then just email me. They release high quality to subscribers on Fridays and low quality to everyone on Sundays, and they're always funny.

24fps: 8/10. Fiction, drama/humor, Movies. This is a comic about a movie reviewer, in Denver, and his friends/family. Its been really good so far, and it could easily get much better. Big recommendation to you, Liz.

Filibuster: 9/10. Non-fiction, Politics(US/Canada), Humor. A political cartoon strip, run by a Canadian who also does tune into American politics. This is a very, very, very, very good strip, as it is funny, non-partisan, and serious when it needs to be. No need to go through the archives, really, but its still got many good strips there. It updates whenever the artist finds something to make fun of, really.

WTF Comics: 8/10. Fiction, MMORPG Gaming, drama/humor. Very good strip based in the world of Everquest. Here's the catch: The major characters know that they're in the real world, but everyone else acts just how you'd expect MMORPG players to act. Good humor, and it appears to be developing one hell of a storyline. It updates a couple times per week.

It was noted a while ago how I never seem to give anything less than a 7 or 6. That's because I have 49 webcomics now, and I'm not going to waste time on one's I don't like! Just pointing that out :).

I have a midterm tomorrow.

Yay.

...

And a comp sci project due on Friday. But that's not too bad, got a good amount of it done.

...

Lets see, the midterm is in about 12 hours.

I got time :).

Anyway, the happenings that's been going on here are as follows:

Weekend was fun, the convention was fun. Wasted away most of the time playing a vastly more detailed and complex version of Axis and Allies. Its one of those games that takes about 5 full rounds to finish, but each round takes about an hour. Its also a game that is not very easy to pick up. But I still had fun :).

Also, got presents from friends and family. Here's the list:

From Aiko:

1: Caffinated Cinnamons (may come in handy...).
2: An 3v1l l33t t-shit from Megatokyo.
3: An Ubergeek sticker.

From Parents:

1: TV antennae.
2: The book Qo'noS ta'puq, Hamlet lotlut. Its one of the greatest plays by the Klingon playwrite Wil'yam Shex'pir. This book is better known on Earth as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespear :).
3: Brownies :).
4: A mug with the text "/dev/mug" on it, from Think Geek. For those who don't know, dev is unix for device, and mug is, well, mug. Its also extra large, to hold a lot of coffee :).

From Liz:

1: An Ubergeek t-shirt from think geek.
2: The MTV Spiderman TV series DVD's, when she can get them.

Lets count down my nerd shirts:

1: Ubergeek
2: 3v1l l33t
3: Mac Geek
4: Mac Inside (done in the Intel logo :))
5: "Bash head on keyboard to continue."
6: Cthulu "Sell your soul for a cookie".

1 more, and I got a weeks worth :).

Wraithy a happy boy :).

Oh, and yes, that's something from Think Geek from every person who got me something :). Gotta love it :).

Now, to studying!

*head falls on keyboard, asleep*

Mario on the Piano!

Dear... f***ing... god...

That kid is good...

Oh, and Aiko, I'll be on AIM tomorrow :).

Cutest Art Site Interface EVER!

Click on the little guy. I dare ya :).

Question to parent folk:

If I were to get a package from you, in a small u-haul box with that same standard address label you put on all of your shipments, with the label not having a comma after "irvine", am I supposed to not open the box at all until my birthday?

Cause, ya know, its pretty big and I have no place to put it :).

Juuuust wondering :).

Reasons to stay inside

You see, every gamer loves the rain. It makes a nice pitter-patter sound on windows and roofs, gets rid of all the gunk in the air, and gives you a guilt-free reason to stay inside all day and play video games for eight straight hours.

Cow.

Not that it would make any difference in any case. We'll be playing video games for eight straight hours rain or shine, but at least rain makes us feel better :).

Another cow.

However, its not raining today. Far from it. There's not a cloud in the sky.

Tree.

Ya know why there's no clouds in the sky? Cause they've all been blown half-a-world away!

Yet another cow.

I believe the weather warning was saying something about gusts of 60 mph winds today and tomorrow.

Actually, I think that's the same one.

Anyway, in about half an hour I get to walk to my class.

There's that cow again...

Wish me luck...

Quick addenum to what I sorta need:

New wallet. Seriously, this one is dying badly.

My birthday is in 9 days.

Now, my mom has offered to buy me a plane ticket home for a day or two, but there are a few reasons why I am going to stay here:

1: There's an RPG convention up in LA over the President's day weekend, and the RPG group I'm in is probably going to go up there for the Saturday and Sunday.

2: I still have homework due, and somehow I have a feeling the lab that week ain't gonna be a pushover.

3: I have a midterm in 12 days, three days after my birthday and the day after President's day. So I'm probably going to need a bit of time to study.

:(.

Anyway, as is tradition with my birthday, I'm gonna point to my Christmas list, which is in the December 2003 archives (which are now working properly, yay), and add a few things:

1: Bunny ears (aka TV antenna) for my TV (they never got the cable to work in our hall >:(.
2: ...

Okay, just one thing then.

That's basically all I sorta-kinda-maybe-partially need right now.

If you can think of something else, then go wild! I'm blanking out tho.

A Dare to my sister, the Screenwriting Major

By the way, this is my third post today, so I suggust reading the other two too. Intresting stuff in them.

Anyway, this is sorta an aftermath of my two video game movies posts I wrote this weekend. I decided to post them on Infoceptor.com, and so far there have been 49 responses to it. One of the things that was brought up, initially by me, was a Starcraft movie.

Now Starcraft has one of the strongest stories to grace the gaming world. It has excelent characters, a powerful plot twist, good voice acting, and a superb ending.

Its good enough that people have been clamoring for a Starcraft movie. A lotta gamers in particular, but still.

Anyway, there's the problem with the conversion. There's no way you could make one Starcraft movie. The plot is simply too complex to fit into one movie. But it could theoretically be split into three movies, especially since the campaign is split into three parts.

Now, I don't know much about movies. I certaintly didn't go to school regarding it.

But someone in my family did.

Yo, sis, graduate of USC Film school, graduated as a Screenwriting major, graduated with honors (you did, right?), how would you like to figure it out?

I do not really expect you to say yes, btw. But if you could play through the campaign (cheat all you want, but lots of plot happens in the missions) and possibly figure out how to actually turn the game into an above-average movie, that'd be, amazing first off, but also it could be good practice. In a sense one of the hardest things to do is an Adaptation of other material. This is pretty obvious by all the massive failures out there.

This is just something I'm doing on a whim. Say no, and all I'll do is just jokingly call you a chicken. But if you're intrested, then give a hollar. You never know what might happen...

Oh, and in case you didn't hear about it:

Good Summary of Sunday's halftime show.

Wraithy's Favorites playlist

No, I'm not going to list every single song. There's 179 of them in there.

Here's a general look at my playlist, tho:

Alternative: 20 songs
Childrens: 1 song
Classical: 5 songs
Techno: 3 songs
Rap: 2 songs
Metal: 2 songs
Pop: 6 songs
Rock: 47 songs
Soundtrack: 70 songs
Undefined: 20 songs

In other words, I'm big on Alternative, rock, and Soundtracks, and I am not very big on Techo, Rap and Metal.

However, my latest purchase , which I heard on iTunes' streaming radio, is playing non-stop. That's nothing new. And I really like the song, too. Again, nothing new. And its the second rap title.

That's new (the first rap title is "Lose Yourself", the only rap song to win Best Song at the Oscars).

This one is "Back in the Mud" by Bubba Sparxxx. Although its tagged with a "Explicit" modifier in iTunes Music Store, that's due to one use of a female dog and maybe one other swear. That's it. And you can't really hear the use of "a female dog" because of the beat of the song. Lets just say that it is a really fast song.

Linkage!

Its one of those songs that I get cause it sounds good, but I still love listening too once I manage to find the lyrics. Its got some really damn good lyrics.

Movies Based on Video Games, Take Two

Okay, now that I've discussed upcoming movies, time to try to actually rant about video game movies.

The focus of my essay/article/rant should've been why video games movies don't work, not on the upcoming ones.

Anyway, I shall try to extend it slightly :).

The actual main problem we have here is the fact that Video games and Movies are completely different forms of media. As are books and movies. And, for that matter, books and games. The latter two are not going to be discussed in this post, btw.

Most games are oriented almost entirely around combat. Story is told in little cut-scenes, sprinkled throughout the game. So you fight, learn a little plot, fight some more, the plot continues, and you fight some more, etc. The storyline is put together to provide an excuse to kill stuff, basically. RPG's are different, but even the least combat-oriented RPG's still require you to kill stuff most of the time, except the plot is good enough to absorb you fully. Otherwise, the plot can be ignored for the most part. As usual, there are other exceptions (Halo comes to mind), but this is the general trend.

Movies are, for the most part, completely different. Combat in the really good movies is treated mostly as a means to an end. In the grand realm of the movie, unless an important character is killed in a fight, then the fight itself is meaningless. It could be erased from the story as a whole without having any negligible affect, except for having less oohs and ahhs.

The only movies which do not follow this trend are heavy-action movies. I'm talking about movies starring the Gubernator in the 80's, Stallone, Van Damn, and other big action stars. They include action as the central theme, with the plot being an excuse to blow shit up good.

This is exactly why Mortal Kombat worked. It meshed perfectly with the Action-Film template. Ditto for Tomb Raider, although to a lesser extent. Hopefully MK 3 will go for the standard Action Film as its end result, instead of Annihalation's attempt at a real movie that failed miserably.

The other problem with this is that Video Games are increasingly aquiring more complex and oft-better plots, which do NOT mesh at ALL with the Action-film motif. No movie studio will try for a video-game movie with a complex plot, because the studio heads know that their target non-gamer audience, Male 18-35, will come because of the shit being blown up good, not for the intrinsically crafted plot.

And before someone says that they could go for both, I'm just gonna shoot that down now. Plot heavy means minimal time for flashy action scenes. Action heavy means little time for plot-heavy scenes. The more complex the plot, the more time needed to allocate to it for the plot to make sense.

Matrix Reloaded encountered this problem. The action was required for it to get return visits by the Male 18-35 audience, but the bro's wanted a strong plot, which was condensed into a half dozen plot scenes, like the Architect speech, which needed return viewings to comprehend.

In short, the only video game -> movie conversions that can work are games that are not at all plot heavy. This is due to condensation of the media (3-4 hours of plot -> 1 hour of allocated plot time) and the fact that their demographic is so heavily based towards Male 18-35 that they are going to likely be action films.

Two genres have a chance of avoiding that Action-film mess, tho. TRPG's do because they are loved primarily for their plot, not neccessarily their gameplay. Besides, the plots are set up like really long movies. However, the long plot conspires against them.

The other genre is the strategy game. It can go for a few epic battle scenes and use the rest of the time to develop the plot. However epic battle scenes tend to be long and only movies of LOTR length would work well. That's really how Starcraft would work: As a trilogy with a couple epic battle scenes in each one.