My problems with AVATAR.

Avatar's been out for quite some time, and most people have seen it, and most people love it. Let me preface this rant of sorts by saying that despite my issues, I still enjoyed the film immensely. The spectacle was awe inspiring, the acting was rather good and the presentation of it was amazing.

However, spoilers ahoy.

Plot racial text/subtexts

The story irked me in a way most white guilt films do. A person, usually of the white persuasion walks into an indigenous culture, slowly learning, assimilating and loving this culture that he has been sent to investigate, spy, or what have you. Falls in love with one of the natives usually "the fairest of them all" and ends up being "the most awesome one in the land" as Annalee Newitz probably would have said. Being a product of white colonialism from probably before World War two, it's hard for me not to inject my personal feelings about colonialism into this scenario. I found myself groaning and cringing every time Jake Sully conquers what the N'avi consider legendary feats effectively becoming a messianic figure of sorts. I did not want Neytiri to end up with Sully. It bugs me to no end to see the film pandering so obviously in the direction of it's perceived target audience. Yes, I am aware of the counter arguments that have been brought up by other, more intelligent people than me. But even after several days of digesting and analysing the film, I found it hard for me to look past the fact that this outsider, who came from nowhere, is able to integrate himself so completely into this culture in a matter of months. Devindra from the /filmcast mentioned that if Jake Sully wasn't white, the film would have been stronger. I whole heartedly agree, but this sentiment brings with it a new level of questions that I currently don't have the answers for. Is it my fault for not looking past the fact he's white? For example. Would it have been better if the story was told entirely from the N'avi's perspective? Would I have related better to the central character if he weren't white? Would I have related to him better? AM I just being racist towards white people for not wanting them to succeed? One thing is for sure; I wouldn't have these feelings if Jake weren't white. But obviously the movie could care less about my feelings, so I'll move on to a topic less political but equally as aggravating.

Bad Dialogue

Someone tell me I wasn't the only one who winced every time they said "I see you". Fortunately, the word "unobtainium" only surfaced no more than twice throughout the entire film. Ham fisted, explanatory exposition. Long, long scenes of Jake talking into his video log in which he outright tells us what's he's been doing for three months. Norman Spencer/Spelman whatever irritated me to hell and back. 10 years on the film and you're telling me Mr. Cameron sir couldn't have spiced up the dialogue a bit more? All that inner monologuing drove me quite nuts.

Length

Okay, this is a rather catch-22. On one hand, I definitely think it droned on in some parts, yet I was utterly mesmerized by the scenes they set on Pandora. But I just did not care for anything the humans did. Any scene with non-blue people in it I was waiting for the transition, hoping that we see more of the lush, green, and frankly beautiful world that James Cameron dreamt up at the next cut. The quandary here is that in a film told from the perspective of the human meatbags, you have to spend some time with them, in order to set up relationships etc etc. But they were boring as hell. Michelle Rodriguez dies at some point, and I felt NOTHING. So even with 160 mins under its' belt, the film did not made me care for most of the human characters. Sigourney Weaver also dies, but the feeling is underwhelming. At that time, I was left wondering why did I not care about the deaths of two rather major characters in the film. In fact, most of the characters you're introduced to dies in the film, but you'll shrug and go "eh". Or at least, I did. So cut it down, but put in more Pandora? I'll leave it to you Mr. Cameron. I'm ready for a sequel with no humans in it.

So despite my incessant ramblings, I still adore the film. I plan to see it again, but in 2D, just to see if it's just as immersive. Pandora is very well realized. Neytiri is hot, not to mention very well developed. The final 30 minute battle sequence is downright badass, and the message and heart of the film is in the right place. Still, it's annoying to think that this film could have been THE MOST AWESOME FILM OF ALL TIME. Too bad it's not.

Beware my power.....

Shit.

When you say shit like

Prayer is the most important tool because ppl may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers. So pray n pray 4 others to be saved!

Think about what it is you are REALLY saying. Or maybe you do know, but choose to ignore it. In which case fuck you guys for condemning me to hell.

Tonight.

The night sky is cloudless today. Under tonight's bright moon, I see my own shadow. There's Orion in the sky, and I think that's Mars right there, shining its' crimson light, almost obscured by some trees in the distance. It was the first time in a long while that I looked up at night and saw the stars. The glittering of which have inspired so many to write, paint, and sing. It's quite magnificent. I wish I was back home. Then my knees wouldn't tremble, my fingers won't go numb. It wouldn't be so cold. I'd be able to lie on a bed of grass, looking up. Not doing anything, just watching. Trying to make my own constellations, as men in the past have done. Just a little bit of solace, before I resume trying to make what I do interesting again.

I have this lump in my throat

I have this lump in my throat.
It sits floating, much like a boat.

I have questions as to why it is there.
But the fruit of this tree, I fear will not bear.

Maybe it's because I'm depressed.
But one could also say it is stress.

Perhaps I don't go out enough.
But why? The weather's so rough.

Perchance it's the cold.
But on this I'm not sold.

I don't think it's cancer.
Or a tumor, it's not stranger.

He says it's mental.
To which I say, be more gentle.

But at the end of the day,
It vanished and went away.

So I'm left pondering,
When it'll return, wandering.

The upstairs shower.

I moved into this new place roughly two months ago. So far everything has been great. The rent is cheap, my room is massive, and everyone generally keeps to themselves.

The one beef I have with this place has to do with the shower, located upstairs. It's the only source of comfort when you start smelling and your armpits begin to itch. A good shower can stop wars. It can mend broken marriages, and above all, it helps keep my sanity intact. The shower in this house does a pretty good job of doing just that, except when it doesn't. And here is where my rant begins.

Every so often, while I'm cleaning myself, the hot water will go cold. Suddenly, inexplicably, and without warning. It's like premature ejaculation. Pleasure cut short. Potong stim. Very fucking annoying. I started to time my showers, making a mental note as to when the water chills. Being as bad a timekeeper as I was, I figured it was about 10 minutes or so every time I turn on the hot water. I figured it was some kind of temporal hot water cache that would run out, and needed to be replenished, which it did after a while.

My showers would generally go like this: Turn on hot water, enjoy it for a while, wait til it goes cold, then start using the shampoo and soap. Wait for the water to heat up again, by which the shampoo and soap would be nicely applied on my person, and use the second dose of warm bliss to wash it off.

So it was for a week or so. It made taking showers very, very annoying. Then I started to hear about my flat-mate's experiences with the upstairs shower. She has of course, been bitten by the suddenly cold suddenly hot problem before. But the curious thing was that she seemed to have rare occurrences in which the hot water would not act up. She said it often happened at night, about 9 or 10 o clock.

So I took her suggestion, and took one of my showers during this supposedly magic hour. But it seemed what worked for her would not work for me. Annoyed and confused, I felt like I had only one option left. That was to ask my rather uptight landlord about this.

What he revealed to me was rather telling, and surprising. The gist of it is this.

The hot water problem would only happen if while you were bathing, someone were to use water downstairs.

Still skeptical, I tried taking my showers in the middle of the night, when I was sure everyone was sound asleep.

It was glorious.

The first proper shower I had in weeks! I felt like I had made a major discovery. One for the ages. Or at least, for the rest of my time here. But the I got to thinking.

So my previous hot showers had been disrupted by someone willingly? If it was the landlord downstairs I could understand, since it would be rather pissy of me to ask him to check the shower every time he needed to pee. But what if it was someone living upstairs? The layout of the rooms upstairs is so that you would always know if someone was in the shower or not if you stepped out. This means that if someone upstairs was responsible, it would make them complete jerks.

Sigh.

Now I only take my showers in the middle of the night, which is apparently bad for you. Or something. I get nervous if I take a shower in the day. Having hot water cut off during a shower is about the worst thing that could happen to you during a shower, short of the scene from Psycho I suppose. I try to make sure I'm not disrupting anyone's shower every time I step out to wash my hands by checking upstairs. Not too troublesome for me, but I would never presume such a thing for others. What's left? Well not much, except to endure the fact that I can now only take showers in the middle of the night. Which, now that I think about it, isn't too bad a deal. It gave me renewed appreciation for that marvel that is hot water from the tap, but also made me a little bit more cynical about humanity's future. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But whatever. I'm out.

As bad as the ISA: ACTA turns everyone into pirates, including ISPs and you're mom.

I'm late to the bandwagon, but the ACTA discussions have already started. The ACTA is a hugely important act being discussed right now, at this moment, behind closed doors in Seoul, South Korea. Discussions are ongoing and will last the week, I presume. Details have been kept under lock and key, but some of the points have surfaced online.

It's not looking very good.

From Boing Boing:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.



From TorrentFreak:

* Similarly, all participating countries have to adopt a ‘notice and takedown’ policy where copyright holders can request ISPs to remove infringing materials, again without having to provide solid evidence or proof that they actually own the copyrights. When ISPs don’t comply with the requests they will be held liable, which means that they will be seen as pirates themselves.

This goes further beyond free music and videos. This affects each and every one of us if it's passed. Anyone "accused" of infringing copyright could have their internet service revoked. Keyword: accused. As in, "however we see fit".

This is as bad as Malaysia's ISA. Spread the word people. The fight continues.

Futher Links:
Slashdot
Michael Geist(who originally reported on this)
ReadWriteWeb

The X3 we will probably never get.

Like most geeks, I pretty much hated X3. Mike Dougherty, who worked on X2, Superman Returns, reveals the film we would have got instead of Superman Returns, had Bryan Singer stuck around for a third film.

Listen to it here.

It starts about 22 minutes in, and lasts about 10 minutes, in it, he basically pitched us the movie X3 would have been. And it sounds pretty damn awesome. I won't spoil anything. But this should make you hate Brett Ratner more.

Bryan Singer's future is kind of in murky waters to me. IMDB says he's going to be involved in the remake/re-envisioning of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica movie/TV series thingy.... magicboby... There rumblings that he was going to direct a Superman Returns sequel, which would be all "Wrath of Khan", but that never came to pass. Valkyrie was his last film, and that was pretty much a big heap of disappointment. The other projects he seems to be involved in are "You want me to kill him?" "Capeshooters", and "Freedom Formula".

It's hard not to be sad for Bryan Singer's misguided decision to leave the X-men franchise for Superman. Come back already.

Digital comics with a small iverse app review tucked in somewhere.

On a whim, I downloaded the iverse app, mostly because it was free, to see what Comics on my iPod would have looked like. What I discovered got me thinking, and in somewhat organized form, here are my thoughts on digital comics.

Reading comics digitally has never been easy. It hasn't. We have yet to discover the way to design comics so that when presented on a screen, they don't feel like mere imitations of their physical counterparts. News, movies, TV shows we can do. News are soundbites. You don't really need to care how you get it, as long as you get it. Film and TV have been on the small screen for a long time, and while it doesn't compare to projected 35mm, the quality we can sometimes do without.

Comics, however, walk the thin line between interaction and passive reception. You read and turn the page at your own speed. You control how the story moves. Got something you need to clear up? Flip back a few pages, make sure. How you interact with a comic affects how much it will impact you. It's something unique to comics, and it's something the medium excels at exploiting.

On the physical side of things, Watchmen is undoubtedly the Citizen Kane of the graphic novel. Few are the times such a comparison is valid, but this is surely one of them. tThe Citizen Kane-ness of Watchmen however, does not extend to its' digital counterparts. As we stand today, digital comics are clumsy, unintuitive, and hard to read. The best experience viewing digital comics I have had is using FFview for the mac, coupled with my almighty touch pad. Click to turn the page, double-finger scroll to look around. It's not perfect, and doesn't compare to actually flipping the page, but much better than iverse in its' current form.

Some comics, like the 3 or 4 panel strip, make the transition with no hitches. But as we move up the ladder in sequential narrative complexity, things become, naturally more complex.

It's been a rough ride for the digital comic, and as it stands, if you were to put your regular comic or manga on a screen that's smaller than A3; the length of an average issue opened up, there are three major problems to circumvent.

1. Vertical panels. Works on the page, but as we are now, completely unworkable on the screen. Split it up, have your reader turn his iphone vertically, horizontally? Too much fidgeting. Takes you out. Just have the page as it is? Zoom in then? Slightly better, but still jarring due to the zooming in and out.

2. Full page panels. Assuming the copy is a big enough point size, this isn't too much of a problem. Your screen is not going to be able to display this the way it was meant to, so you'll have to scroll your way down a single panel. Imagine reading a full page panel with a magnifying glass tied to your eyes. Heaven forbid, your point size is a tad small, and you have numerous massive word balloons. The way iverse has done it, as far as I can tell, is to make three copies of the same panel, slice off the top and bottom so they fit on your screen, and have you read the copy while you scroll through three same identical panels. It distracts to no end. And let's not even mention double page spreads.

3. The act of turning a page. Nothing is more exciting then flipping the page of a book with your own hands to discover a shocking twist on the next page. It is something unique to the physical media, and pressing down on a piece of plastic does not in any way replicate the power that the simple act of page turning provides. There needs to be some way in which our intervention will lead to some form of discovery. That amount intervention cannot be too light, nor too much. Turning the page sits squarely in the middle on a scale of one to ten, one being too little effort and ten being too much. The internet has yet to provide us with an answer.

If we are to make comics work for the screen, they have to be designed for them. Taking regular print comics and slapping them on to you glorious LCD monitor will just hurt the story. The big two won't change because that's the way corporations are run. I'm not saying print comics should die. I in fact love them to death and I don't think they're going away for a long, long time. There have been several examples of digital comics done well. Most of them can be found on Scott McClouds' site. Renowned author and comic creator. I provide the best example in my opinion, utilizing flash to make clicking as powerful as page turning. The man has come up with several more ideas, open ended stories, vertically scrolling panels that fit on your screen, etc. None of them are worthy of comparison to Citizen Kane yet.

Digital is the future. Manic distribution channels, cost effective, crazy accessibility. We just need to move in the right direction for it to happen. Start designing comics that work for both print and digital for a start. Avoid the usual trappings print comics fall into when presented digitally. And think. Experiment. Let's get out of the panel for a second. It will take time, and a lot of trial and error. But with enough vigilance, we'll get there eventually.

When we do discover the holy grail of digital comics, which would be a format that is seamless, immersive, and powerful, the next step would be successfully monetizing it, but that would be a rant for another day.

Zombies, lesbians, and the legion of superheroes in this week's comics.

Every so often you get a week like this. Good stuff rammed down your throat, barely leaving enough room for air to ventilate. No mistake, this was a stellar week.

So.
The lone Marvel book I remember this week. The conclusion to Johnathan Hickman's "solve everything" story arc, and an epic start to what must be a great run by the creator of Nightly News and Pax Romana. Much has been said about this arc, which was, for many, a return to form for the FF. I wouldn't know, I had never read any Fantastic Four. It doesn't take away form the fact that this book is fun as hell. Hickman has pretty much proven his chops with his previous works for me. Dale Eaglesham's art annoyed me at the beginning. I'm one of those young whippersnappers who's used to seeing Reed Richards lanky and thin, instead of beefy and big. The character designs are fresh and exciting, just the execution of it bummed me out. Still, it remains wildly imaginative, permeated with BIG BIG ideas but never forgetting the fantastic family values. It's pretty much what I wanted a comic book to be. This team is going to do great things. If anyone can make the Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben live up to their namesake, it's these guys.

It's no coindence that Smallville's best episode last season was written by Geoff Johns. It's one of the most referenced stories in pop culture. I can't think of anyone who doesn't know it. Yet this reinvention of Superman's origin story is never dull. I know nothing about Kal-el's dalliances with the Legion. I always thought they were lame. Just couldn't get myself excited for characters named "Lightning Lad" or "Saturn Girl". Earlier this year, Geoff Johns proved me wrong with his Legion episode of Smallville. Here he does it again. The man is a serial offender. I suspect his JSA episode of smallville next year will continue what he has done to me. Getting me interested in characters and books I did not care for. Sometimes, it's fair to hate someone this fucking good.
Also, Gary Frank is nailing it.
Another origin book! I hadn't realized we had so many this week. What's left to say? Everything good about Detective comics has been said to death. I feel like I'm beating a horse that's half way decomposed. But if you really need an in depth review(something I'm NOT going to provide this time of night) go here.
Ah blackest night. Even though I don't quite remember what happened in this issue, I still like you. Like a good dream I woke up from; can't remember what it was about specifically, only that it was extremely enjoyable. Is that praise or slander? There was a big scene at the end, and alot of character moments for guys I'm not familiar with. The Atom especially gets quite a bit of panel time here. Nevertheless, it's all very very good. Will be watching how this goes with a very, very keen eye. Also, fuck tie-ins.

Thousands protest Global Warming.

so... this week's comics.

Knowing absolutely nothing about the dudes who worked on this, I picked this up on a whim, and boy was I surprised. Twisting, turning, rife with pop culture references and deftly illustrated, this one of the more original series I have had the pleasure of discovering. It begins with an oceanographer lost in what appears to be not the north Indian sea looking for poisonous fish of some sort. From there, we get conspiracy, dismemberment of faces, dick millionaires, great monochromatic art, wit-sharp dialogue and of course, cowboy, ninja, and viking.

It's a ride unlike any other. And like any great ride, it doesn't always seem to make sense, but by the end of it, everything clicks into place with a glorious cliffhanger that brings the issue full circle. My only gripe with it was that they misspelled "Kuala Lumpur" for some reason, and that took me out of the story, being Malaysian and all.

Still, boatloads of fun.


I like Joss Whedon. I like this. Not that the two are tangentially related. I like Fabio Moon more than I like Joss. At least here I do. Which is still pretty awesome. Banter. Hyper. Off course. Left field.Vikings(not really). Mystical intergalactic bodyguards. Battle of the bands. You know this thing is crammed with ideas. Imagination. For a measly 26 pages it's got loads. Plus you get sketches, backup material. DVD extras. The only thing is. This thing WAS free. I think it still is. hmmm. Well. If you haven't ever read this. The opportunity's perfect. Snatch this up. Light on character, but full of wacky. Refreshing breather from everything else. Let loose and go. It's a fun time.



Ugh.

Anything remotely related to Ben Reily gives me the shivers. In a bad way. Just let this end. Die, inconsequential arc! Let us never speak of the Clone saga ever again unless we're in the ultimate universe.

MOUSEHUNT

you evil evil facebook app.

Because I binge write.

Though the word binge here is used very lightly. I find that when it comes to blogging, I can go weeks without writing. I donot know why, but once I get the urge to write, I feel like I should be making for lost time, so I write two, three posts a day for a day or two. Then it's back to silence. Why is this weird phenomenon manifesting itself? It's not like the silence helps inspiration for topics or whatever. But then again, when have I ever been topical? Some people have gaming blogs, others have music blogs, some blogs are funny and interesting, others are dull as fuck. Hell, there's even a blog for cats who look like Hitler.(really) I don't binge drink, or chocolate, or anything else, at least not in recent memory I haven't. But when it comes to blogging, it's not even intentional. Just a pattern I've been noticing lately. Who knows when the next post will be. You all can look forward to it. (all two of you)

Justice for all; Mesrine

I just finished replaying the second Phoenix Wright game. All the while I was trying to figure out why I like the series so much. Because as i play through, I realize it has a lot of elements I've grown to dislike lately. The declarative nature of the dialogue, for one, the fact that you are almost always never on the same page as Phoenix, or all the macguffins invented especially for the sake of plot. Foreign teddy-bear-shaped puzzles or handmade unique silk hats for instance. These things, in my head at least, seem like easy solutions to complex narrative problems. Somehow, even with all the flaws, the charm never wears off. The plot twists keep piling up, and the characters are constantly endearing. It succeeds not only despite, but because of these flaws I feel. The imagination never lets up, and curveballs are constantly thrown your way. The Ace attorney series has forged itself a place in my heart that no form of entertainment comes close to replicate. I await the next game with bated breath.

I also watched the first part of the Mesrine flick last week. I found it popcorny enjoyable despite the historical subject matter. It's a character study and an action flick balanced very very nicely. Vincent Cassell is genius and infinitely watchable in it. They say it's possible to see two different characters in him while he's on screen. And you know what? That shit is bang on. I will be watching part 2 soon, and cannot wait to be charmed again by France's most famous bank robber.

Today, 2 videos from TED.com: Kindness and Mafia.

Johnathan Zittrain talks about the inherent kindness and trust on which so much of the web is built on.

The fall of the Berlin wall and subsequent collapse of communism is often seen as a great blessing to those who were in the Eastern European Bloc. Mischa Glenny shows us the underside and more shadowy aftereffects of the fall. Specifically, how capitalism's dominance affected of organized crime, which has grown leaps and bounds in the last 20 years.

If your reading this from facebook, you can't see the vids. Below this paragraph, click the link that says link to original post or whatever.

Intelliegtualizing cinema?

Don't intellectualize films too much is what my friend said to me today. Sometimes a film doesn't speak to you. It's alright. Happens all the time. There's no need to overthink it. Sometimes what it is is what it is. Sure, you can analyze every single detail and come up with allegories or metaphors to almost everything. Anything can be a symbol. What's stopping you from enjoying the film as it is? This need for everything to make sense drive me nuts sometimes.

We saw Nagisa Oshima's 太陽の墓場. (the Sun Burial, Tomb of the sun) I didn't really get it. Admittedly, I did fall asleep halfway through for about 5 mins. But I still pretty much got the plot, but I didn't get what it's REALLY about. Which is a problem for me. It's not that I can't turn my brain off to enjoy something. It's a problem of expectations and context. This film was made about 40 years ago, so immediately the context you might need to fully appreciate the film is gone if you're not well versed in the histories and cultural significances of the era. 2ndly, my first Oshima film was Realm of the senses. Which made a huge impact on me, and not just because of the final scene either. I saw it as a meditation on the destructive nature of pleasure. Cautionary really. Hugely successful in my opinion. So when I saw this through to the end(mostly) I was rather really quite disappointed with myself for not "getting it". It's a frustrating experience. Knowing that YES! He does have something to say but why the fuck am I not getting it? And because it's been selected for preservation in Japan I only have to assume a whole bunch of other people got it as well.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't love the film, but it's not really that bad, some really striking images and a great setting kept me captivated.

I'm just rather distressed. Whenever I find something I don't understand, I look it up on wikipedia. Like most people. But conveniently enough this film does not have a wiki page.

So what? Is it really meaningful in ways I can't understand or is it just a bunch of pretty crap. Well, I'm not pompous enough to say the latter, so that will have to do for now.

love film print campaign

Among other things.

District 9: awesome. go see it.
Thames festival: awesome, great evening.
Script: 22ish pages done. Let's go.
Book: 2nd campaign revision in the progress. Yes.
Blog: really really not daily anymore.
Notebooks: 2 almost filled up. Giving me the illusion of progress.
Lovefilm: you suck why can't your dvds play on my laptop.
Laptop: You're awesome but why your dvd drive suck so hard.
Apple: Thanks for not announcing a new ipod touch. Sally's heart breaks easily.
Weather: Oh fuck off.

Comic.

yonks ago, I was working on this short story that was supposed to be a comic. It was supposed to be about this girl called Mina who got possessed by an extra-dimensional pawn. Suspected for murders she didn't commit, she resolved to find out about the nature of these incidents that were following her around and in the course of her investigations uncover the truth that lies behind our world. I planned it to be about 120 pages at the time. I finished about 22 pages, the first chapter basically before shelving it indefinitely.

Now the story has returned but now it's 60 pages and barely resembles what I've written before except that the main character is a girl. We'll see how this one goes. First 10 pages are due tonight, and then everything else will follow. the idea is to finish the script by this weekend. And that's that.

LoveFilm.

LoveFilm is the European equivalent of netflix to a tee. They're so similiar it's not even funny. We've been working on this product for quite some time.

The Lovefilm free trial offers you 14 days service from Lovefilm. In the interest of my portfolio I have signed up for it. On my List:

Back to the future
In the loop
Die hard
Die hard 4.0
religulous
Nick and Norah's infinite Playlist
The Damned United
Doubt
Godfather pt2
Torchwood series 1-3
Silent Running
Solaris
Sunshine

A hefty list with some "OMG I can't believe you haven't seen that" entries, bearing in mind that I've never seen any film on that list. Or at least, not that I remember. Isn't it swell.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to sell it and cancel the free trial before they bill my frakking ass.

sure. go ahead. see if i care.

I have to be ready for tomorrow's crit anyway.

I smell a Scam: 911 ads.

WWF: Tsunami killed (n) 911 only (n-whatever)

Disgusted? I know a lot of Americans are. Or at least American blogs and ad trade rags. I can't really bring myself to care. But I'll bitch about it. Such a deluge of sameness makes me want to crawl up in my bed and wish they don't exist. Let's have a run through.MTV: as if the channel wasn't bad enough.

Some kind of radio station: I don't get this one. Whose eyes wasn't glued to the telly when the planes hit? It's doubtful people said "quick! turn on the radio" when it hit. ugh. Moving on.
some woodland charity: everyday is 911 for nature. Getting bored yet?
Copy enlarged.
Hey, who doesn't love photo-hunt? Oh, that's right, families of the 911 victims. Especially if the image is one of said tragedy.
Anti smoking: 911 killed bla bla tobacco killed bla bla + a gajillion.

Same idea, different brands, generally pretty good Art Direction. The smell of scam from miles away. If I'm doing this every week I might die of repulsiveness.

on marvel's aquisition by disney.

2 words, one equation.
Pixar + Runaways.






Scrap the live action.
Make it happen.
NOW.

Crit tomorrow. Ramble now.

If life has thought me anything it's that I should say less and do more. I find that the more I talk the less I want to do, because talking seemed like doing, and the illusion persists, therefore hampering productivity.

Opinionate(not a word but should be) only when asked about, and express oneself more freely. I think the freer you are allowed to be who you are the happier you are. Society often hopes to undermine this. By it's nature society can not hope to inspire happiness in it's members. I don't think. But suffering makes us human, and it's what makes gleefulness all the more precious.

But I digress. There's this crit with this non-smoking vegetarian senior art director tomorrow at Euro RSCG London. I'm having vibes that she will not take kindly to our book. I hope my fears remain unfounded. For what it's worth, we'll approach it like water approaches a stone. How does one be reasonable and not feel doubtful about one's work anyway? My worst fear is being seen as an arrogant douche. Maybe that's my problem.

one word reviews

Inglourious Basterds: Tense.

The thick of it: Sweary.

I kill Giants: Big-Hearted.

Moon: Reflective.

SMT devil survivor: oversized

Fanboys: Charming.

-

2 months is a long time to stop writing. At least in the online sense it is. Must've seem like ages. Galaxies must've imploded, stars died. But the more things change, the more it stays the same.

My, how things have changed. I wouldn't even know where to begin. So I won't. Beginning never really was my kind of thing anyway. I like to dive right in, so the the finish line and starting point blur together, and a minute in it seems like you've been in there forever.

The water's not cold. Won't you join me?

This hiatus of mine is unexplained. Accountable to almost no one, or nothing. Things didn't feel right. Maybe I was just happy. I don't know. By default I've never been anyway. So why should change be any different?

Actually, I'd recommend you stay out. The water is freezing on reflection. (hur hur)

The first thing I heard out of the bath. Which set the tone for several days to come,

"Jingwei, Michael Jackson died."

mindblowing.

Look at the clouds. Now the bushes.
:0
:O

Relevant to my interests.

Tokyo Time Lapse.

Someone shot a time lapse video of Tokyo at night. Entitled "miniature city 2" (I assume there is a "1" somewhere out there), It's hauntingly surreal, otherworldly and beautiful. Good choice of music too. See it in HD for full effect of awesomeness.

Sledeghammer cars in real life.

What do you do when you see a sledgehammer chained to a car?



Let me rephrase that. What do you do when you see a hundred copies of a newly released video game locked in a car with a sledgehammer chained to it?

Usually this wouldn't make much sense, but for Red Faction: Guerrilla, it melds together like butter and sugar. Here's why, courtesy of Simon Watts, by way of Kotaku:

"Because Red Faction Guerrilla features the world's most realistic destruction engine, we thought that it would make for an interesting experiment to find out how many people, going about their everyday business, would stop in a busy city street to work out some stress by smashing their way into a car to earn a copy of the brand new game."

It's new, it's fun, exciting, and relevant.

Boy I wish I'd have thought of that.

left4dead2 announced(and boycotted)!

A few days ago Valve announced left4dead 2 at E3. Normally this would be good news for many peoples. But not this time.

A group of fans have strung together and created the steam group NO-L4D2, it's mission statement titular.

It has a manifesto and everything!
These peeps are serious.

They make a good case for their cause, of which I also feel I was a part of, since I was suckered into buying L4D on release day too.

today's quote of the day:

"The worst thing to call somebody is crazy. It's dismissive. I don't understand this person. So they're crazy. That's bullshit." -Dave Chappelle.

Dollhouse Finale: Omega. Overview. Spoilers.

So Dollhouse came and went. Season's done and with the gleefully exciting news of it's renewal, now's as good as any time to look back on the finale, titled "Omega".Did it live up to expectations? How mind-blowingly awesome was it? Why should we care? Answers: kind of, not nearly awesome enough and because season 2 has potential to be the best thing on TV since Firefly.

The Finale: as we found out previously, Alpha came back to the 'house, posing as a building engineer/designer/expert/agoraphobic person, kicked everyone's ass and left with Echo in his arms. So he brings Echo back to his lair,where he's concocted his very own doll-imprinting facility. Cut to backstory, we find out more about Alpha, how he had his "composite event", why he's so attached to Echo, and who he was before he became a doll(psychopathic serial killer on death row). So we get Alpha's not-so-secret anymore origin, and about Dr Saunders. The original one, since the girl with cuts is actually a doll named "Whiskey". This raises several more questions. The Biggest one being "who the fuck's actually a doll here?"

Flashback continued, Alpha and Whiskey were hired out to live out someone's "Natural Born Killers" fetish/fantasy. Things go wrong and Alpha is told more than he needs to know. Right before being sent to the Attic, tings go wrong with Topher, computers, Security and Alpha and he gets 43(42?) personalities imprinted into him all at once. So now he fancies himself the next in human evolution. Now he plans to give Echo, the doll he's fancied since his own doll-days, her very own composite event.

Meanwhile, we get a Boyd and Ballard(captured last week) bromance team-up. This results in several awesome moments as we discover these two have a lot more chemistry than we previously thought.

In Alpha's lair, Echo is wiped and Omega is born, but instead of reaching the same conclusion as Alpha( that normal people are below them in the food chain ) she smacks Alpha with a metal pipe. So they duke it out as Caroline, now imprinted in the body of a random receptionist Alpha kidnapped earlier, watched on in shock horror.(Did I tell you, this episode is packed.) Long story short, Alpha escapes and Omega explains that the the president is black now. Cue new status quo for season 2. All in all a satisfying finale, yet still somehow misses the mark. (not enough closure maybe?)

Nonetheless, the Boyd Ballard team-up next season will be fun to watch, even if the "Ballard now working for Dollhouse" pill is a bit hard to swallow. But at this point, I'm buying it. Whedon being the humble, self-deprecating genius that he is seems bittersweet, but with the sad, sad cancellation of it's lead in(Sarah Connor Chronicles) it's doubtful it'll do much better Nielsen wise. I wish them all the best though.

BRING on SEASON 2!!

more thoughts and musings. Dollhouse overview tomorrow.

Scamp is taking a break, the world wonders why and til when. Dragonball Evolution is crap but still enjoyable if you have your standards low enough. Star Trek is 80 million kinds of awesome. To the kid who offered me a cigarette today: you better be older than you look. I can't remember the last time I played hoops, I'll remember tomorrow though. I still love her very much, but why am I still confused? I think my bio for the lonely hearts club thing is awesome. I am aware of the dangers of loving your own shit. My brain is shot, until I play some sports. Top 10 is great, but where is my book 2? My bag needs cleaning up. I want a PS3. Every time I watch House I am reminded why I love that show. I'm starting on "Brave New World" soon. Right after "Wind up bird chronicle", which is beautifully poetic and deeply philosophical(Or perhaps I'm just dumb). TV season is over. Movie season begins. Postits are great.

And I need a job.

On Chelsea's unceremonious exit from the champions league.

From some dude's Twitter Feed.

Fun.

The fueds with the dudes with the nudes.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Colbert-Branson Duel
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

Awesome on so many levels.

The truth presents itself.

Cylons are screwing around with the Scott Pilgrim movie. Someone get the vipers in here.

All the emails in the world at my disposal.

SO this is what posting from email feels like.

Can't say I like it much better than blogger.

Dollhouse episode 11: Briar Rose.

To say anything more than it being awesome would be criminal.

Watch it.

Campaign unframed.

Profile photos for campaign always have the photographed look serious. This dude called Andy Whitlock stumbled upon the pretty funny idea of showing their softer side.


Campaign unframed. Click on picture for link.

Pooh on swine flu.

Dollhouse episode 10: solving your own murder? geekiness ressurected.

Apparently everyone has seen the "solve your own murder" plot before. Except me. So for me this episode of Dollhouse was fresh, engaging, and fun. The big theme this episode is eternal life. We're introduced to how with dollhouse tech, certain privileged individuals can have life after death, or conceivably eternal life. Perhaps this is what Whedon meant when he mentioned his vision for the show. For me this brought an entirely new angle to the show, and gave new meaning to the short scene in episode 6 where a scholary type person said how if dollhouse tech really existed(he didn't know. poor bastard) we would cease to matter as a species.

Echo is imprinted with a recently dead friend of Adelle this episode. Being suspicious of her own death, she decides to investigate. In the process discovers what her family and loved ones really thinks about her. I don't need to tell you how this ends, but the journey there is gripping, entertaining, and fascinating, even if it did involve one too many horses for my liking. Meanwhile, Topher shows us he's not just quippy lines and sarcastic remarks when he resurrects a dead geek friend. Suffice to say the only thing they don't do is fuck. It's sweet, charming, and somewhat eerie. We actually feel sorry for him this episode. Lonely, sarcastic Topher, the only nerd in a house of security personnel and empty headed dolls.

In short, Dollhouse continues to be awesome, and I continue to pray for a second season. I'm drafting my letter to the television gods now.

on self control.

It's eleven.
I haven't eaten.
But I weighed myself.
So the food I shelved.

GOKU! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?

Dollhouse episode 9: the attic is scary, Adelle's second layer.

So I've enjoyed dollhouse ever since it started, this much is true. To a certain extent. Nevertheless if I suck on this particular dick any harder it will probably drop off. But let's be honest. The show has gotten better and better with each episode. so let the weekly cocksucking party begin. Minor spoilers.

So this episode there's a spy. Another person feeding Ballard information besides Alpha. From inside the dollhouse. He/She get's caught of course, but not before some detours that show yet another dimension to this already multi-layered narrative.

For starters, we get to see what happens to individuals who get the much teased about attic sentence, and Adelle DeWitt shows a side of her that transforms her from cold-hearted British business woman into something more interesting. Something with quite a bit more layers, more fascinating, and intriguing. I hesitate to spoil it, because the reveal is quite the shocker. It puts an entirely different spin on the Adelle character moving forward.

In other news, Paul Ballard's life crumbles to even finer dust, as he discovers Melly is a doll, existing only as a tool for the dollhouse to spy on him. Paul discovers this by way of a hidden message imprinted into Melly's programming, apparently courtesy of the titular mole. A lot can be read from the scene that ensues, in which "Melly" tells Paul to keep up appearances. Subtly creepy and revealing at the same time.

Echo learns to ask this episode, which is also subtly creepy yet revealing, she requests to be imprinted so that she can help sniff out the inside man/woman. Is it an early sign of a "composite event" teased earlier in the series? Or something else?

The story played out, at least at first, like a Tarrantino movie. Told nonlinearly from different points of view, being a television show that has to make sense on some level, all the plot lines converged, and all the while the show is sowing seeds, slowly building up to our not-really-season-finale-but-apparently-is episode. Entitled Omega. Which will, if things keep up like this, be FULLY AWEOSME.

Ahem.

As I mentioned earlier, any more smoking of the cock of Dollhouse will like cause it to fall off, and my balls to shrink. So I leave you with this, a much better written, spoiler ladden review of dollhouse of the same episode. You must be a very very nice person to read this far. :)

The Nightly News.

Reading the Nightly News, one gets a sense of madness, insanity. Cold, calculated, well thought out, soundly structured madness. Not the kind you find in an asylum. This is more than being a little bit off the beaten path. This is faith we're discussing. It's a beautifully designed/illustrated finger to the media conglomerate, peppered with spreadsheets, factoids, graphs and feels feels brutally honest, despite the creator's frequent attempts(in and out of the book) to distance himself from the views represented(misrepresented?) in the book.

But let's back up. This is a graphic novel, written and drawn by Johnathan Hickman. It's a one and done story told in six issues. We follow John Guyton, failed art critic, homeless, who gets recruited into becoming "the HAND of the VOICE". The leader of a cult with one goal in mind. The complete obliteration of the modern journalistic system. Indoctrination disguised as education, the essence of truth, the power of faith and how dangerous it can be a just a few themes the book tries to explore. It's heady, confusing stuff. Even though it feels somewhat didactic at times, the central plot line grabs on to you like a mad dog humping your leg. Never letting go and giving you only the slightest room for breath.

The visual styling of the book deserves special mention. A mash-up of graphic design and comic illustration, it's arresting, layered and powerful. Never before has design been so tightly intertwined with the story in a graphic novel. Every page is painstakingly designed, little visual cues and easter eggs dotted all over, most of which won't be apparent until at least a second reading. Or the annotations, which are awesomely insightful.

It's rather dense, but never feels hard to follow. It leaves you feeling a little bit smarter than before, as all good work should. It's unapologetic demonizing of the media seems increasingly relevant in our age of information. Perhaps it's distasteful to some, but for everyone else, it's a great looking ride, with insanely brilliant cult-speak, explosions, political intrigue, and everything you'd want from an excellent conspiracy story.

Been busy.

Daily writings becomes less and less daily every day. This week was particularly hectic, I know that isn't an excuse for not writing, but I'm using it anyway. Because I'm promising myself to write more often.

We've sent out 1500 emails to almost everyone in the London Ad industry, and half of them were truncated. Of the replies we did get, 40% were like "fuck off" 30% "interesting", 20% "nice, wanna come in some time soon?" and the remainder was positive. Certainly, we pissed a lot of people off, and as long as they're not reading this, I doubt they'll remember in a couple of days.

Out of 1500 emails, we have maybe 10 possible book crits. Which is not too bad, when you think about it.

I'm thinking of posting up the replies soon, because some of them are genuinely funny.

So still to come in the coming days.

the current weekly "Dollhouse review", Impressions on Johnathan Hickman's "The Nightly News." and maybe several other stuff.

Dollhouse episode 8: Needs. Spoilers ahoy.

I expected this week's episode to usher in a new status quo, possibly building up to a final showdown between the dolls and the dollhouse in the finale, but of course, that is way too obvious.

It begins with a meeting among the staff of the dollhouse. Adelle describing that a tide is rising, referring to the shenanigans of the previous episodes. Memory drugs, Echo's veering off course and various other anomalies the show has presented to us so far. Then without warning, we cut to our favourite actives. It seems they've become aware, original personalities intact sans memory, but with little hints sprouted about, giving them a sense of purpose. Seemingly without reason. In the night they awake, screaming, afraid, and determined. Sneaking around, pretending to be dolls, they hatch a plan, to get out together. The first bombshell is dropped when Echo/Caroline announces that she's going back into the dollhouse to free the other dolls. Right away we realize this is Caroline from the animal testing days. Idealistic, rash, a girl on a mission. She confronts Topher, and Adelle. Her rhetoric no match for the keeper of the house, yet determined, in her purpose, in her belief that the dolls should be freed. Meanwhile, Sierra faces the man who put her in the dollhouse, who seems unsurprised at her sudden appearance with Victor. Victor, slowly developping his crush on Sierra, climaxing with them kissing. Melly remembers her daughter, and seeks her out, only to find a tombstone in a cemetery. For a while it seems like the dolls have won, they've mostly evaded capture, and Echo convinced Adelle to set the dolls free, with a gun. Then without warning, the dolls shut down. Adelle looks pleased as we flash back to the beginning. In which it's reveled that our dolls are being set free, to achieve resolution, closures with conflicts they've developed whilst in the dollhouse. Hence Victor's kiss, Sierra's meeting with the man who took away her freedom, Melly's grief for her daughter and Echo's desire to free captive animals. A sedative released once they have satisfied their needs. Finally, another bombshell, while Echo was semi-lucid she recalled Paul Ballard's name and has left him a message. I'm not sure how this will play out, but as we race closer and closer to this season's finale, the only thing left is to pray for a second season.

Slowly but surely, this show is turning into a meditation on the societal condition. Subtexts abound, but aren't really required to enjoy the story. Has Joss Whedon delivered on his promise? Sort of. We can be sure there will be no more suicidal pop-stars from here on out. There's less Whedonism in dollhouse, and that may turn off the average whedonite, but dollhouse, as it stands is a work of considerable maturity. Reserved in it's execution, but insightful and subversive nonetheless.

We're seeing the slow blossoming of this show's vision. "Man on the street" gave us a glimpse of it. "Needs" expands it. Silencing more naysayers every week. The dolls it seems, have proven themselves to be more than dolls.

My Golden statue of Joss Whedon reaps it's rewards.(Dollhouse overview)

Last night's episode of Dollhouse gave us great stoner dialog, lots of backstory and another reason to hope it doesn't get canceled. So far it's not likely that we'll see an supposed pilot episode yet but you never know.

Friday's dive into the rabbit hole that is Dollhouse is good, but doesn't reach the heights of last week's episode. Topher went from uneffective at the start of the series, to amusing, and adorable and finally somewhat annoying in this episode. The psychological breakdown of our favored cast members is delightful to watch, complete with stunningly inspired LSD-esque dialog. Without giving too much away, seeing Dominic treating his suit like a lost kitten made up for the slightly annoying intro.

Yes, the flashback were a bit hard to swallow and the sense of urgency seemed to be missing but ultimately, there were sufficient threads sown and connected that you cared enough for to see it through to the end.

If it turns out to be true that there are multiple dollhouses everywhere in the world, this one that we're watching has yet to blossom into the tumor that will rob our species of it's meaning. But it's one step closer.

Change the re re re re re re re re re

Well, the guys at sell!sell! recently did a post about conformity in the advertising industry and how a lot of us are a part of it. This is relevant. To most everyone. Yes, it's a regurgitation and paraphrase of what Paul Arden said: "don't try to win awards."

But yeah it's a bit more than. Samey me too advertising is popping not just everywhere in the street, but everywhere in the award books and annuals as well.

Now I don't know if I'm lunatic enough to take back the asylum, but I'm definitely guily of doing samey-looking-wannabe-hipster ads. For the book. This is of course, unacceptable. Changing the record requires a lot more than just picking out another record from the shelves.

Well currently as it stands, we're going some distances. Maybe we're finally tipping the point of no return. Right into employment. Now that's something to look forward to.

New Stella Advert campaign.

Funny. Off-target definitely, but funny.

I'm interested to see how many beers this will sell.

Unemployment.

I find this funny, and sad, and ironic, a host of other things I can't really express.

sell sell

Sell Sell is a great new blog about design advertising, and any things in between.

Fat. Broken chair. Made of metal. Flimsy metal but metal nontheless.

In my room the two newest pieces of furniture are a chair and a table I got for cheap at poundland or whatever before I left back in February.

Yesterday I broke the chair. Or at least I think it was me. It could have been any of the other intruders(jkjk) that have used my Room for lodging while I was away. I don't know. What I do know is that the chair is now fucked. The welding at the bottom snapped off and the legs have started to bent. If I continue to sit on it it will bend even more. Eventually, if I am vigilant in my efforts to fuck the chair it will become a deformed piece of metal resembling something out of a modern art museum.

But I am not fucking up the chair further. I think it reminds me of how much I need to lose weight. I'm a sensitive guy like that. Can't afford to get hurt(har har har). I might weep with tears of inadequacy and no human being should need to witness that.

That said, I do have to lose weight and today's football session served well. How well I played didn't matter(not well) but I came back feeling a slight sense of accomplishment. Despite my performance.

The room now needs a new chair. Sitting on the bed while typing does not help my posture. Or my typing for that matter. And I should really lose weight.

Out.

Dollhouse. Thoughts and musings. Spoiler free. Whedonites rejoice.

It's been a rocky career for Joss Whedon. With the cancellation of Buffy and angel and most recently Firefly, one can say he has not had the best career in television. But what the man does have is a legion of fans. The exploits of whedonites and the more prolific Browncoats are well documented, with Serenity being the most remarkable.

His new show Dollhouse has been going on for 6 weeks, and although early criticisms have rung true, we're told that the show will hit it's stride and be totally awesome from the 6th episode onwards. Early reviews of episode 6 have been positive.

I'm here to agree. The show so far has been freak-of-the-week-type of affair. Having an engagement as the A plot and Paul Ballard's FBI agent shticks as the B plot. Mostly. The show has had six weeks worth of world-building and this is where it reaps the fruits of it's labour.

Without giving away too much, this episodes turns what has been status quo for six weeks upside down and gives us a whole new ballgame. The new seeds sowed in this episode blows our preconception about the show out of the water. It was called a flawed, but intriguing concept before but this week the flaws are taken out of the equation.

Every scene gels together so well you'll wonder what has been going on the past few weeks if you haven't been reading the blogs. The studio's decision to give up interfering with the direction of the show has proved to be for the best. This episode is easily the best hour of television I've seen in a long time.

For those who have followed Dollhouse out of a sense of loyalty to Joss Whedon, the time is now. Time to tell your friends and family how freaking awesome this show will be. Because after watching episode 6, there's no way that you can't.

Discard your preconceptions. Nothing in this show is what it seems. If you have been interested but haven't checked it out, now's the time. Sad to say, I fear there won't be a suitable jumping on point for new viewers in the future. Because Whedon has said he's not a fan of "reset television", in which every episode is self contained and does not have a large, overarching plot. Episode 6 feels very much like the payoff we've been waiting for. We sat through the pilot and the faux suicidal Britney episode(which actually sounds kinda cool written that way) for this.

Critics have slammed it since the pilot, calling it a flop, wasted opportunity, and having untapped potential. Well the tapping has begun. There's no better proof of that than episode 6. The DVD release better sell like gangbusters.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let there be a season 2.

This astonishes me(Fun religion bashing)

From the official website of the Institute for Creation Research;

"Plants do replicate within their kind, but so do certain crystals and some chemicals. They replicate within kind, but they are nowhere said to possess chay (life) or nephesh (soul), the Hebrew words for living things. Job 14:8-10 is cited as evidence that plants die like people die, but that passage most certainly does not use the words for life."

Wow.

Just. Wow. Note that this little gem was taken from the "evidence" section of the site. While quoting the Bible for evidence is nothing new to creationists, this is the first I've heard of plants being "not alive."

More choice quotes.

"Our solar system appears to be near the center of the universe. Galaxies look the same, and are moving away from us in the same way, in all directions. The cosmic microwave background radiation comes to us very uniformly from all directions. These and other data strongly indicate we are located at a very special location by design."

Wait, didn't we discard a similar model of the universe when we decided Copernicus was right? We can't even see the whole of Universe due to limitations of our light-based perception. For all we know it might be infinite(Which we don't, yet). In which case there is no "center" of the universe. How can something that has no boundaries have a center?

Aaaaand my favourite so far...

"The universe is only several thousand years old.

Comets are an example of a natural clock within our solar system. With each orbit around the sun, comets lose considerable mass. They cannot be very old because they cannot survive many orbits.

To get around this problem, many astronomers assume there is a vast cloud of comets out near the edge of the solar system, which releases new comets every so often. This imaginary cloud is called the "Oort Cloud," named after the astronomer who proposed it. The problem is that there is no observational evidence such a cloud exists at all.

Each year our knowledge of astronomy increases with new evidence concerning the origin of our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe. While it is possible to make assumptions beyond what can be observed and verified, the heavens continue to bear witness to recent creation."

I can't believe they mentioned observational evidence, or any kind of evidence for that matter.

Oh silly Creationists. And you wonder why they didn't let you hand out Science Degrees.

a link to icr.org if you're interested in more.

Trott Grilling

Today we went into cst advertising, looking for Dave Trott, and we found him. He gave us a proper grilling. We went away energized, hungry, and eager.

He sent me away with a souvenir. Sort of. A copy of "how to get your first job in advertising" with a quote written on one of the blank pages.

"You can have what you want, or you can have reasons for not having it."

I showed it to Lyn.

"No excuses, basically."

Yeah. That pretty much about sums it up.

No excuses for not having what you want.

No excuses for not doing what you need to do in order to get what you want.

No excuses for failing.

Right now what I want is a job.

Street Fighter 4 and job interview

Apparently the Street Fighter 4 arcade cabinet arrived in Trocadero London right after I left the UK. When I found out I was so disappointed because that meant I would have to wait a about one and a half month before I got to try it out.

Well today is that day. After all that waiting, the sight of two HD linked Street Fighter 4 cabinets felt like a dream. I had to mentally slap myself for a few seconds before I put down my coin to finally, finally try out the newest iteration of the seminal fighting series.

Nothing disappoints. Except maybe my own skill, but even then I played a lot better than I expected myself to play. I still couldn't pull off Ultras but boy did it feel good. Smooth as silk and controlling like a dream. Street Fighter 4 is the very pinnacle of 2D fighting games.

Maybe I'm still starstruck, but I spent quite a bit of cash (I'm not saying how much) in that arcade, and I left wanting more. This just makes that interview tomorrow that much more important.

Which brings me to this. Job interview. Tomorrow. Finally. Luck has smiled upon me and tomorrow is my first official book-crit. It's make it or break it. Lucky too. Second day in the UK my partner tells me he's got an appointment with Adam&Eve London tomorrow and has invited me along. I couldn't be happier.

Look at you, jw. 23 year old and gushing over Street Fighter. Hoping to land that jon/paid placement just so you can play more Street Fighter 4. How much lower can you sink?

Bastards. I shall not give in. Loving Street Fighter 4 is nothing to be ashamed about.

Tomorrow's the big day.

Now's the time for rest.

Air Asia X: London review (bring your books)

Perhaps the biggest failing of Air Asia X is that it does nothing to exceed expectations. Everything you've come to know(and hate) about Air Asia is present here in full force. Low price, rubbish service, ridiculously overpriced food labeled as "reasonable", somewhat uncomfortable seats, the whole package. For better or for worse.

For some people, the low price(if you are lucky enough to get it) is forgivable for everything else.

Take the rather expensive comfort kit for instance, which is just terrible. Consisting of an inflatable neck pillow and a blanket, my coat served as a better blanket, the back of my scalp a better pillow than the sorry excuse of a kit that is supposed to provide comfort.

Food, is of course, as previously stated, abhorrently expensive, but is passable. The Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala they served gave me chuckles, for which the reason I know not. Just be sure to pre-book unless you don't mind getting the leftovers of the pre-bookers. Contrary to the in-flight menu and catalog, there doesn't seem to be any savings involved when you pre-book a meal, curiously.

While the subpar service other bollocks are permissible on a short distance flight under 4 or 5 hours, a 13 hour flight is a different beast entirely. Not to say that there isn't entertainment, just that it will cost you. Like everything else on the flight. The upside is that you can see in advance if the stuff provided is to your liking before you blow RM30 or so on a screen roughly the size of an average notebook.
If you're not planning to spend extra money, just be sure you bring a book or two. Your PSP or NDS will not last you 13 hours. That I guarantee.

another surprise for you.

Kevin Smith on Watchmen.

Reviews on the Watchmen are split half and half. Bloggers and fanboys generally love them, and snot-nosed-holier-than-thou mainstream journalists except Roger Ebert generally hate it.

I've always been a fan of Kevin Smith. Despite whatever people think of him these days. I think he's a great guy, has an impeccable ear for dialog,and always always tells interesting stories.

He's also a huge comic geek and it's no surprise he loves the Watchmen movie.

Here's a humongous 1hour35minute review/discussion/podcast he's done with 4 other guys on slashfilm.

I am starting to feel that he's mostly right about this movie, especially from the point of view of a fan.

Watchmen fans, be grateful. The movie is awesome, the original ending wouldn't have worked on screen anyway, and I'm going to see it again soon. This time without looking out for what they have cut etc.

note: this was not the thing that I forgot which I was going to write about. I'm still bummed about that. It's like an parasite eating at my brain, causing it to itch constantly. Man I hate that.

For the life of me

I can't remember what it was I wanted to write.

AGAIN.

4 more days

and I leave for the UK again. My friend over there has told me that shit is not good. Market getting worse.

Gloomy gloomy gloomy weather ahead. Dark clouds, thunderstorms, warts and all. Why am I going back there? Probably because I really wanted to work there. Even just for a little while. Just to say that I have(how naive). Also the pound is still 5 times stronger.

amazon.co.uk. 10 mbit internet speeds. None of this streamyx one mbit but not even that kind of cockery. Nice people. Weather is shit but everything else kind of makes up for it. Football matches. Humour. BBC.

Still, I give myself a maximum of 6 months. Come back after that. No point otherwise. Even though it's not like the market here is getting better anyway.

I have to be hopeful. Tomorrow is printing and tidying up portfolio day. 3am now. Sleep.

this made me smile today

And not just because I'm a fan either.