5/7/09 Is A Special Date (Also, Duke Nukem is Dead)

In case you didn't realize, today, Thursday, April 5, 2009, is a special date.  It is just one of the six dates this century in which a date contains three consecutive odd numbers.  One out of six.  Save the date.  It is special.  This post is to remind me that I did something special today.

IN OTHER NEWS, it has recently been announced that 3D Realms, the company behind the ever-popular Duke Nukem franchise, is just next on the list of companies hit by the economy.  Duke Nukem Forever, the game which took forever to make, may not even come to be.  Boo hoo.  Good night, folks.

Watchmen Ending Reconsidered

I recently thought about the ending of Watchmen, and after further analysis, I came to the conclusion that the squid/brain/alien thing was neccessary to make Watchmen so damn good.

I mean, really, the world's smartest man, trying to change the world and save it from its own demise, hatches a plot that will bring world peace.  The brain/squid thing blows up, killing millions.  The world thinks that they encountered an alien life form and are going to be intent on learning more about it.  As long as they are working together on this, World War III will be avoided.  And when it seems like Adrian Veidt has essentially become the other real-life god, he is soon questioning the morality of his own plan.  I mean, he killed millions to save billions.  A neccessary price... or is it?

I think that I initially hated the ending because I wasn't expecting it.  It seemed too outlandish to fit in with the rest of the novel.  But now that I think of it, I probably should have expected an ending like Watchmen's.  There's the whole masked heroes deal, for one thing.... 

I also think that I didn't like the ending because I never quite understood it well enough.  I didn't think about it enough, or pay attention enough, or whatever.  The point is, I'm looking at it differently now, and I like Watchmen again.

Let me cut to the chase: I changed my mind when I realized that there wasn't really a better way to end Watchmen. I found something on the internet which really brought out the side of the argument that I needed.

I eventually decided with the brain/squid thing, people would possibly think it was an alien, wonder where it was from, how it got to Earth, why it blew up, etc etc.  In other words, everyone would be so preoccupied with this... thing that they wouldn't care to wage war on each other.  It makes Veidt look like a genius for pulling off the whole thing.  In the Watchmen movie, Veidt just looked like a puppeteer more than anything, with how he made Dr. Manhattan cause those massive explosions.  

I did some investigating of my own and found some scripts for the Watchmen movie that never made it.  One ending had a scheming Veidt use some sort of time portal thing that he would use to kill Dr. Manhattan before he became Dr. Manhattan.  In another script, Veidt fired a beam of radiation at Earth.  Obviously, neither of the endings were any good.  

And nothing that I could think of worked, so there we go.  The giant squid is needed.  End of rant.

Best Widgets Ever

I was surfin' the interwebs just now, and found this sweet website by a guy who calls himself aBowman. There are a bunch of awesomely interactive widgets like the one you see below that you can add to just about any website in existence. Everything is extremely functional, too- I didn't even need to put Blogspot into my address bar to make this post! So if you know what's good for you, head on over here (or, well, there, if you're not here already) and check it out!

Rant: Watchmen's Ending (the Graphic Novel one)

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!

Just a few days ago, I finished reading Watchmen for the first time.  Yes, it's a bit late, I suppose, but still.

I was so into the GN that I was reading it instead of doing my homework.  It takes a really good read to make me avoid homework like that.

The entire end of the GN was a disappointment.  I mean, the whole time up to then, there are a bunch of themes like being human and learning about oneself and political unrest and a few other themes- all of which were executed brilliantly.  None of the superheroes are your traditional heroes with powers, minus Dr. Manhattan.  In short, the GN brings a lot to the table than other GNs ever do.  It's a nice step into a world that you're not used to.

I wish I could have just finished my work without procrastinating.  That's how bad the ending of Watchmen is.

Really, Ozymandias somehow creates some sort of brain/squid thing with a brain so powerful that it causes an explosion upon its death.  What.  The.  Fuck.

Oh, and he catches a bullet as it's coming towards him.

I thought he wasn't supposed to have any powers!  Total, complete, utter bullshit.  Moore was probably drunk when he wrote that last chapter.  I mean really, all of that build-up and the ending uses just about none of that.  What were they smoking?!?!

I felt that everyone was out of character too.  Rorschach didn't keep trying to kill Veidt, and then he made Dr. Manhattan vaporize him, leaving Rorschach to just be some steaming pool of blood in the snow.  It just doesn't seem like Rorschach to give up like that, considering we saw him group of jailmates during the riot (electrocuted one of them, suffocated the other by shoving him down a toilet).

Or, Dr. Manhattan turning all lifeless and Terminator-like, or Nite Owl and Silk Spectre getting busy where anyone could see them (well, Veidt at least, the guy who threw a plate at Nite Owl, Falcon Punched Spectre, and wiped out half of New York City) (I mean, really, who wants to show their bits to a guy like Veidt?), then dying their hair blond (like Veidt's hair...) and all of that nonsense.  None of it felt true to the characters.  In the end, it was a major letdown that should have been much, much better.  The only good part was at the last page, where the kid at the newspaper place finds Rorschach's Journal in a pile of papers.  It had a feeling like Rorschach wasn't completely dead, and that maybe he is the ultimate winner in all of this instead of Veidt... who is a complete bastard, by the way.

From what I hear, the Watchmen movie has a different ending, one that is supposedly better.  I'm sure hoping it is.  I don't think I can bear to watch/read another bad ending (main offenders: I Am Legend, Push, Babylon A.D., Next, 

My iPod Dilemma

Last Saturday, my iPod broke.  I was listening to it before I went to bed, turned it off and put it away when I was about to fall asleep.  I woke up the next morning, and it wouldn't turn on.  Completely unresponsive to everything I tried.  Unlocking it didn't work, restarting the software didn't work, charging it didn't work, nothing, nothing, nothing.  I don't know what could have happened overnight, it was working fine before and roughly eight hours later, it was broken.

Later that day, I went to Best Buy because my iPod is still under warranty (I got it about a year ago as a Christmas present).  Went to the Geek Squad counter, just waited in line, drowning in my misery.  I knew that I probably would never see my very little buddy ever again, that he would likely be replaced by another, newer one that possibly once belonged to someone else in a previous lifetime.  I said my final goodbyes as I got called up to the register.

The guy behind the counter looked fairly young, in his twenties, but like the stereotypical Geek Squad employee, he had the body of someone double, maybe even triple his age.  He was a big main in both height and width.  Yet what I liked about him was that he seemed legitimately interested in his job.  I wouldn't be surprised if he could fix most of that junk behind the counter himself.

I gave the man my iPod and he examined it very quickly.  I got right to the chase and told him about the problem, how the iPod was unresponsive, and about the warranty and all of that important stuff as he entered it into his computer.  I (well, my mom actually, because she's the one who bought the iPod for me) signed some papers, and also got the guy to print out another receipt of the purchase of the iPod.

The guy behind the counter informed me that it would take them (it was never quite specified) about two weeks for them to contact us back about the iPod.  He told me that I would most likely get a refurbished one back.

Thursday, today, Best Buy calls, the iPod is ready to be picked up whenever.  Thirty minutes later, I leave to go get my iPod, not to mention what little of a life I have, back.

The same man from Saturday is behind the register again, and he seemed to just barely recognize me.  I told him about the iPod and gave him the papers about the repair, and the man went in the back room.  He returns five minutes later with an iPod, in some black Best Buy box wrapped in plastic.  Inside was the iPod of course, with a new charger and set of headphones free of charge.  It also included a "QUICK START GUIDE" CD of little importance (everything is working fine for me so far, so...).  The guy mentioned that Apple usually just replaces broken products as opposed to repairing and returning your specific iPod.

I did get a new "refurbished" iPod that is so clean that if I didn't know any better, I would think it was a brand new one.  The serial number is 8M742WS5YMV.  I got a new, much better set of headphones to go with it, because the Apple headphones never stay in my ear.  These new headphones are made by Sony, cost over $50 and apparently are "STUDIO SOUND QUALITY".  Considering the fact that it's from Sony, I find that claim very easy to believe.

Oh, and on the way out, the lady behind the register got all suspicious when the computer said that the iPod cost $0.  She didn't see the 'refurbished' part right before the 'iPod' part.  *Sigh...*

In Loving Memory of my 80 GB iPod Classic, Serial Number 8L39HLMYMV

Rest in Peace

I Play (Video Games) Better Half-Asleep

Last night, I was playing Battlefield: Bad Company.  It was a Friday night at the end of a busy week in school- five state tests, with another four this coming week.  I was up until around 11:30 to 12:00 PM, and boy, was I tired.

In fact, I was so tired that I was falling asleep in the middle of the game.  Well, I wasn't wide awake for one thing.  I had trouble keeping my eyes open and focus on the screen.  Felt like tunnel vision.  Sometimes I even forgot that I was playing a game, that's how tired I was.  I was in a dazed state the entire match.

Yet despite all this, I was in the lead with over 200 more points than everyone else.

I've gotten that feeling more than once- in games like Halo, for example.  It's almost like I'm sleep-walking, except with video games instead of walking.  And then the next day, I barely remember what happened.  It's a odd feeling, in that it doesn't make much sense.  And no, I wasn't intoxicated.

The best way to describe it is by using the Linkin Park song Numb:

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there

Falling asleep, forgetting what I'm doing, where I am, etc etc

Become so tired

Being half-asleep

So much more aware

Noticing so much in the game, but not being conscious of it

Hopefully that made some sense.

You see, the thing with this is that when I am playing games while being half-asleep, I seem to play loads better than when I'm wide awake and/or having a sugar rush.  It bugs me because it doesn't make much sense, yet it's possible.  Like, I want to make some sense out of it, but I can't.  It just doesn't add up using common sense.

Something Stupid That I Just Realized

Okay, I watched Iron Man last night.  Very good movie, it's a shame that a sequel may never happen.  So I was watching the credits and the scene after them, with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.  I woke up the next day and realized something- Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson were both in Star Wars and super hero movies.

Liam Neeson was Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars Episode I.  The guy with the green lightsaber that is Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Master.  He gets killed by the Sith Lord Darth Maul.  Liam Neeson was Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins- he trained Bruce Wayne in the ways of the ninja.  He is bent on revenge after Bruce betrays the League of Shadows.  He gets killed in a near-devastating train crash.

Samuel L. Jackson plays himself Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.  He gets his arm cut off, gets electrocuted, and then thrown off a skyscraper all in about ten seconds time.
Mr. Jackson was also in Iron Man, as stated before, and portrayed Nick Fury, the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. (practically promising an Avengers movie or three).

Well, there's another post off the top of my head.  I've been a bit lazy about posting, I know, I just have plenty ideas that I don't know how to execute well...