Up, Up, and Away!

Well in case you didn't catch the idea from the title of this post. I will be talking a bit about the Last Son of Krypton, The Man of Steel, The Man of Tomorrow, Yes folks Superman. Now if your familiar with me you'll know I read a few comic books here and there, so I get pretty excited when one of these films come out. Now traditionally I'm not that big of a Superman fan, I had always liked him as a symbol not so much as a character, but lately thats changed. I've been reading the Superman monthlies for a little while now(since its actually been good), in the last 6 months watched all 5 seasons of Smallville(just finished this morning), purchased all 3 DVD collections of the Animated Series, purchased and watched the first 2 Superman movies for the first time since I was probably 12, and of course getting really excited about the movie, which I will be seeing later this evening. And yes I get a little overexcited about stuff like this. I usually bombard myself with material. When X-Men 3 came out, I busted out my Classic X-men comics...(and bought some new ones), rewatched the first 2 movies. Unfortunately I didn't have as much material available as I do for Superman.

I think the reason I'm really excited about the movie, especially after watching the original movies is just seeing Superman doing huge amazing superhero stuff.Because no movie has done that...or if they have havn't done it well. Lets look at them, X-Men was good, but played it pretty straight, X2 amped it up, but still all the fighting was done one on one in small confined areas. X3 at the end really did a great job of having a huge Superhero team batlle with teamwork and everything, but other than the bridge and the Pheonix effects nothing crazy, Hulk had good action scenes but not enough of them. Batman Begins a great movie but still a dude fighting dudes, same with Daredevil. The first 2 movies are good, but man the effects, I know they were good for the time back in 1980, but man I can't wait to see how they do everything. In the last couple months they've been releasing a lot of trailers for the movie, and with each one it looks more and more like what I've been waiting for (they showed a bullet bouch off his eye!). Plus whenever they play that John Williams Superman theme I turn into a 8 year old kid and get way too excited.

I want this movie to have the same kind of feeling I had watching King Kong this past Holiday season, it was a movie that needed to be experienced on a big screen, movies like that are why I goto the movies, they give you the spectacle and joy of seeing something that you can't see anywhere else. I better stop now before it becomes a gushfest about King Kong.

But damn it I want to believe a man can fly...again.
I'll be back tomorrow with a review.

Water Power!

Check out this video from YouTube of a news report:


A car that runs on water, absolutely amazing. If this technology works as well as it seems to, in about 10 years or so this could change everything. He's using it as a Water/Gas Hybrid in his car right now, in a car he kind of messed with himself. Imagine a car built specifically around this, Water is the fuel and when the reaction is done, it just turns back to water again. Set up a recycling system collects the water and puts it back in the tank. Not only is it going to run on water you'd also barely ever have to refill it. They say he's working with a major Car manufacturer right now to get this going, sooner the better. This guy just discovered his license to print money. This technology just really excites me because it really can change the world, even shift the balance of power and economics on a global scale.

I give up, just doin it simple

Well I finally got off my ass and got the site working, without any fancy PHP, Javascript, or AJAX. I just did it the old fashoned way. I just wanted it up and working again, looking nicely the way i wanted it. I still wish the AJAX and PHP back end worked the way I wanted them to, but for now...simple. Again its more of that stuff, that even if I got it to work none of you would ever know, because it would look and act the same, just more efficient on my end of things. But what you wanna do?

I want to switch hosting services over to GoDaddy, but until I get my finances straightened out I don't wanna mess with it. Since I obviously wanna keep the same domain name, I also gotta figure out how that works. With this host I lose my Control Panel login screen every month and its such a hastle. GoDaddy is cheaper, plus good customer service from what I hear.

Testing

Well lets see, after that last post I made for some reason my site stopped working in Internet Explorer, it didn't show the post, so I'm seeing if I make another post and kind of bump the other one down it will work correctly.

Moment of Geekiness

Top Row(Left to Right)
Animal Man, Fire, Arsenal, FireHawk, Green Lantern(Kyle Rayner), Shift, Mr. Miracle, Adam Strange, Green Lantern(Guy Gardner), Manhattan Guardian, Tempest, Blue Beetle, Karate Kid, Dr. Fate, Donna Troy, The Question, Firestorm, Dr. Light, Dr. Mid-Night

Middle Row
Aquaman, Power Girl, Captain Marvel, Supergirl, Phantom Stranger, Huntress, Black Lightning, Captain Atom, Cyborg, Hawkman, Booster Gold, Vixen, Hawkgirl, Red Tornado, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Bottom Row
Green Lantern(Hal Jordan), Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Flash, Green Lantern(John Stewart), Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman

Batman vs. Osama

I saw this and pretty much had to talk about it.

Batman vs. Osama bin Laden

Now mind you this is not something I'd probably ever purchase...unless the whole world desides its the greatest thing ever produced. But I probably wont. Now if you were to think that this is a way to blatently call attention to yourself and intentionally cause controversy, then you would be right. But its certainly not unheard of, waaay back in WW2 both Captain America and Superman knocked out Hitler, heck Superman at one point even said it was ok to "Slap a Jap". But not since they tried to make Princess Diana a superhero and bring her back from the dead have I seen something like this in recent years.(Side Note: Marvel Comics gained a lot of flak for the Princess Diana thing, even before publication. So they made her hair black and changed her name to appease the complainers).

Both major comic book companies are based in NYC and both DC and Marvel have acknowleged that 9-11 happened in their universe. Marvel used Amazing Spider-Man to showcase that tragedy and provided a truely memorable and emotional story, given how close the attacks were to them how could it not be? DC has only really talked about it in there universe as a terrible tragedy, no actual issue where it happened. Just a few references from different characters.

The writer and Artist of this Graphic Novel is Frank Miller one of the most respected men in comics, for his character defining run on Daredevil and of course a Batman story that all others will be compared to for all time "The Dark Knight Returns". As I said before the DC offices are located right in NYC, when 9-11 happened Miller was in the middle of drawing his long awaited sequel "The Dark Knight Strikes Again". He had just recently drawn a scene in which one of Batman's associates crashed a plane in a skyscraper, so I'm sure it hit him pretty hard. He is currently writing a book called "All-Star Batman & Robin" which is kind of starting Batman from scratch, new mythos, etc.

Now he's decided to write this new graphic novel in which Batman will be taking on Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, entitled "Holy Terror, Batman". Miller calls it "Propoganda, where Batman kicks Al-Qaeda's ass" and makes a good point by saying "It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you've got Al Qaeda out there."

Although if Batman is unseccesful, you know Superman will 0wnzOr that mf'er. See now i'm thinking Batman, heck why not throw the whole Justice League after them? But, I think I understand how much more satisfying it will be be to see one dude, go in there and totaly fuck those guys up.

Osama your days are numbered!

Blast From the Past, Five Blade Prophecy

This an article from the Onion from at least 4 years ago, little did they know at the time that it would one day be true. I just got my Gillette Fusion with its Five Blades Shaving system, I'll give a review later. Now to hack my face off.

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened-the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.

Sure, we could go to four blades next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, three worked out pretty well, and four is the next number after three. So let's play it safe. Let's make a thicker aloe strip and call it the Mach3SuperTurbo. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!

You think it's crazy? It is crazy. But I don't give a shit. From now on, we're the ones who have the edge in the multi-blade game. Are they the best a man can get? Fuck, no. Gillette is the best a man can get.

What part of this don't you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best fucking razor that ever existed. Comprende? We didn't claw our way to the top of the razor game by clinging to the two-blade industry standard. We got here by taking chances. Well, five blades is the biggest chance of all.

Here's the report from Engineering. Someone put it in the bathroom: I want to wipe my ass with it. They don't tell me what to invent-I tell them. And I'm telling them to stick two more blades in there. I don't care how. Make the blades so thin they're invisible. Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!

You're taking the "safety" part of "safety razor" too literally, grandma. Cut the strings and soar. Let's hit it. Let's roll. This is our chance to make razor history. Let's dream big. All you have to do is say that five blades can happen, and it will happen. If you aren't on board, then fuck you. And if you're on the board, then fuck you and your father. Hey, if I'm the only one who'll take risks, I'm sure as hell happy to hog all the glory when the five-blade razor becomes the shaving tool for the U.S. of "this is how we shave now" A.

People said we couldn't go to three. It'll cost a fortune to manufacture, they said. Well, we did it. Now some egghead in a lab is screaming "Five's crazy?" Well, perhaps he'd be more comfortable in the labs at Norelco, working on fucking electrics. Rotary blades, my white ass!

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we should just ride in Bic's wake and make pens. Ha! Not on your fucking life! The day I shadow a penny-ante outfit like Bic is the day I leave the razor game for good, and that won't happen until the day I die!

The market? Listen, we make the market. All we have to do is put her out there with a little jingle. It's as easy as, "Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet." Or "You'll be so smooth, I could snort lines off of your chin." Try "Your neck is going to be so friggin' soft, someone's gonna walk up and tie a goddamn Cub Scout kerchief under it."

I know what you're thinking now: What'll people say? Mew mew mew. Oh, no, what will people say?! Grow the fuck up. When you're on top, people talk. That's the price you pay for being on top. Which Gillette is, always has been, and forever shall be, Amen, five blades, sweet Jesus in heaven.

Stop. I just had a stroke of genius. Are you ready? Open your mouth, baby birds, cause Mama's about to drop you one sweet, fat nightcrawler. Here she comes: Put another aloe strip on that fucker, too. That's right. Five blades, two strips, and make the second one lather. You heard me-the second strip lathers. It's a whole new way to think about shaving. Don't question it. Don't say a word. Just key the music, and call the chorus girls, because we're on the edge-the razor's edge-and I feel like dancing.
___________________________
taken from the Onion, of course....
I just had to share this with the world.

Smoke Breaks.....*Sigh* Maybe Some Other Time

Ok I come clean, I really did want to do this post about my feelings on smoke breaks, I even wrote pretty much the whole thing, but I left it to goto work, and forgot to save it asa a draft, so all that ime spent was gone. And then I just didn't feel like addressing it anymore, having basically already written it. So now I just want to move on with my life and my blog.

Ghostbusters 3 and other Sequels find new home on Consoles?

Lately there's been some talk of the never made Ghostbuster 3 movie, they had a plot, possibly a script. Then I was thinking what is stopping them from doing it?

Well the actors are all getting kind of old and out of shape (Saw Harold Ramis recently, try to think of a overweight Egon), plus its been so long, but at least everyone's still alive. Then you have to get a studio behind it, get lots of money. But then I started thing...why does it have to be a movie. Why not make it a game? Now I know you think I'm crazy, but don't think of it as a normal game, make it like an interactive movie. Totally story driven, script, director from the original movies, voice acting by the original cast. Mostly story but throw in some interactive bits, and then have bits like driving the Ecto-1 to destinations, and a handful of ghost trappings, only has to be movie length 3 - 5 hours (or more if they have more), and then make it the price of a normal DVD $20 - $30. I feel it would sell like hotcakes.

Then I got to thinking some more...there are tons of movies or shows that could benefit from something like this. And think of how much money is saved by only having voice actors, and no sets or special effects its all done digitally. Games like Half-Life 2 have shown us we can finally do believable people with full range of acting on real time hardware, since prerendering everything wouldn't be as interactive (and more expensive). Also I apologize for this and any future technical jargon.

The recent game "The Warriors" which is a game based on a movie from 1979, and has been rated pretty well by most reviewers. This game is the best current example of something kind of similar to what I'm proposing. It adds to the story of the movie with original content, its done with good gameplay based on an old but quality movie, shows that with the proper quality and respect even old almost forgotten movies can be resurrected. Now start imagining if they can do this for more recent properties.

I've been trying to think of other properties that I myself would like to see and what style of game they could use. Just from looking at my DVD shelf I got, Daredevil done like Ultimate Spider-Man, Futurama just have regular episodes using the 3D game engine, with Quick Time Events for a bit of interactivity (I know they made a game of this but it sucked, Futurama is not an action game plain and simple, the show is comedy the game should be that), Independence Day, and Firefly/Serenity interactive episodes with some Ship flying or parts of it like a gun game for shootouts.

with systems like the Revolution I think its controller would be perfect for this kind of "game/movie" plus its like a remote so easy transition to interactive movies. Or instead of movie games, or at least an alternative to movie games, have them just be the movie with some game elements thrown in.

I use the word "game" loosely since in many cases I think just making episodes using a game engine with a little interactivity thrown in would be great, since their are fewer game mechanics to them they can make the ones they do have perfect. And again the games don't have to be long 2 - 3 hours and price them like DVDs. I think that is the most important part, because people will get sick of paying $50 or more for only movie length gameplay. I really think its an untapped market. Their are so many great franchises that I know I would like to see more stories of, and I think this would be a great way to continue. Or even new worlds and ideas, have a new venue other than making a HUGE movie or a HUGE game. Shows like Red vs. Blue have shown that things like this can make money, imagine if they appealed to a wider audience. Plus can anyone think of a better way we're going to see a Ghostbusters 3?