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Happenings That Occured in My Extended Absence

posted November 11, 2007, 12:11 am | Log In To Post Comments | view comments (4)
Tags: serj tankian, tim hardin, joe strummer, the clash, metallica, elect the dead, ...and justice for all, master of puppets, the future is unwritten, epicness, video games, movies, laziness

The main reason for my long time away: laziness. But here are plenty of excuses for all of you to laugh at, especially since I forget how to write!

Games and Such

I’m a huge fan of Guitar Hero. I remember when I first got it on Christmas and I failed "I Wanna Be Sedated" on Easy. I somehow played guitar better than Guitar Hero. I still had plenty fun playing it however. I progressed with the first one and somehow beat it on Expert (but definitely not perfecting each song). Then the second one was released and I got five stars on every song on Hard and got through Expert. The game was quite bangin’. And now, the best G-Hero has been released: Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. I wanted to get the 360 version but unfortunately, I need a new controller for that which requires some extra cash money (which I don’t have). So I just rented the game for the time being. I started the game on Expert and I friggin’ pwn’d it... except for one song. I beat Cliffs of Dover, Cult of Personality, One, Number of the Beast but I can’t, for the life of me, beat Slayer’s Raining Blood. I can’t get through the "mosh" part right before the verse. Failing it is like getting kicked in the crotch repeatedly. It sucks...

 

I was also one of the people who stood in line at midnight to get the long awaited Halo 3. I actually wasn’t a big fan of Halo prior to buying the third. I played Halo soon after reading about how it was a revolutionary console shooter. At first, I found the game quite fun but after a few more plays, I started to become disappointed with it. The game is rather repetitive with environments and battles and fighting the Flood (alien parasites that closely resemble zombies) simply was not fun. Fortunately, the split-screen multiplayer was very engaging, only suffering from some bad level designs. I strongly protested the hype of Halo 2, which X-Play had the stones to call the Game of the Year over the masterpiece that was Half-Life 2 (love you guys but... come on!). There was little improvement over the previous game besides a more robust multiplayer which continued online and a better narrative. The story was the only thing that kept me playing the Campaign. It was actually rather compelling and it made me want to continue it on the third installment. You did have to suffer through bland levels with the Arbiter, but it seemed necessary for the story to fully work (despite whatever the developers may say).

 

With Halo 3, I’ve finally felt the addiction so many people apparently felt with the other two. I didn’t even touch the campaign until a week after I got the game. I was too wrapped up with the multiplayer. Though it’s similar to Halo 2’s, it just feels much better. The level altering Forge helps users create any type of game idea they could ever imagine and allows them to show them off online. The campaign is also much improved, with less backtracking, four-player co-op, and somehow, the Flood levels don’t suck (save for one near the end). It also features one of the best driving sequences I’ve had in a game. Unfortunately, there is a chink in Halo 3’s armor, the story. My favorite thing about Halo is the story and the final installment is rather confusing. Though it has a very cool ending, lots of things perplex the crap out of me. Well, I thought I broke this addiction but thanks to a day of playing multiplayer with my friends, I’m happily playing again. I hate you Bungie... I hate you...

 

Money

 

I have none and when I get some I’m going to have to spend it because about a million good games are coming out this November... no life...

 

Office/Scrubs/South Park

 

Thursday is officially the best night on television. First there’s Survivor but I’ve been watching that since the Nintendo 64 was the thing to get. But afterwards, The Office begins. It’s everything I’d want in a show, similar to the show that follows: Scrubs. Both are great because they’re semi-serious comedies about jobs, one amazing, and the other amazingly insipid. And soon after comes the epicness that is South Park. It doesn’t matter how vile it is, it’s still one of the best shows around. It can portray some great messages while having you laughing at its no-holds-bar social commentary and vulgarity. Also not mentioned is my new addiction: Heroes. I’m actually watching it as I type this. My God is it good...

 

Recording

 

My band was originally set to record during Spring Break 2007. Unfortunately, we didn’t get in until the summer. And then we could never get a good drum track down. Then we got a metal drummer and finally got the drum tracks done. Wow, our CD may actually be made before the apocalypse! But since I’m such an indecisive person, it will take me forever to figure out the type of guitar tone I want for my guitar. We’ll hopefully finish it... hopefully...

 

Music

 

I’m going steal this from... someone on Music Emissions (I forget, Honey Don’t maybe?). Anyway, my top three (and a half) albums of this week:

 

1) Serj Tankian: Elect the Dead- No solos in a metal album? Blasphemy! Well, not so much when it comes to Serj Tankian. Just some really great metal tunes.

2) Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten- Black Sheep Boy by Tim Harden is great, (In the) Pouring Rain by The Clash is so addictive, and the original recording of White Riot makes me want to cover it.

3) Metallica: ...And Justice For All/Master of Puppets- Just to get it out of the way, Guitar Hero III was not the first place I heard One at. I’ve actually listened to plenty of Metallica outside of Guitar Hero. I’ve actually begun to learn One on guitar and so far it’s going very well (much better than my attempt at Hangar 18). I have the first and second solos down (the second apparently gave Kirk trouble) and I have the third half down. I bull the tapping in the beginning by just going down the string instead of doing what Kirk does which is switching up between going down and moving down and up (I wish I could explain it better so I don’t seem like such a n00b). As far as the CD goes, ...And Justice For All is a bit to sprawling for my tastes. I'm more of Master of Puppets man...

 

School

 

I always read on GameFAQs that people were taking a break from writing when school came around. I was always like, yeah, okay, schools never that bad. Well, I wasn’t a Junior when I said that. This week I had to read twenty pages for AP History II and prepare for an essay on it on Tuesday. I found it very amusing how the United States in the late nineteenth century would go to war for anything. Seal hunting was almost a catalyst for a war with the Canadians. Whilst doing that I had to read the book "Things Fall Apart" which was mostly about yams, white guys on bikes, and dead twins. Then I gotta do some complex questions on the book that we have to discuss in a Socratic manner during class. Oh, and then I have to write an essay on a political dissident. I chose William Wallace, for he was bangin’ and I loved his movie. This is all due this week. I actually should be doing it now, but writing really long and boring blogs is fun. It’s gonna be fun...

 

Movie

 

Over the summer I thought of the best movie idea ever... basically. On a car trip back from the shore, I mapped out a movie in my head. I wanted to make a Western game for a very long time since the ones made always seem flawed. Gun was the closest to a great Western game but it was too short. So I thought of a pissed off hunter named Jack that is anti-social and she gets a bounty on his head somehow. The main thing I wanted to emphasize was that he isn’t strong, he’s just clever and all-around pissy. Anyway, he attempts cutting himself off from society by living off the land in the woods. But, one day bounty hunters come knocking at his door and attempt to capture him. By using his cunning skills, he kills them and gets a name out of one of them.

 

So he heads into town to find out why these people came to kill him. There he meets a sarcastic bartender named Molly who knows where to find this mysterious person that apparently put a bounty on his head and the only way Jack is going to know him is if she goes along with him. So they head for a new town across the desert. On the way, he runs into a dashing, full-of-himself bounty hunter named Adam who tells Jack that he’s going to get some good cash for bring him in. Unfortunately for him, other bounty hunters move in a tell Adam that there is also a bounty on his head. Adam, scrambling for a way out, asks Jack to help him out of this pickle. Once they do, they agree to help each other kill this mysterious person.

 

The rest is just some ideas full of holes (since I’m a bad writer). I know that the reason for the bounty on Jack is because of his vigilante parents who were killed trying to take down a big crime boss. I also know that the mysterious name is just a leader underneath the big boss. Also, Molly will open up Jack by delving into her own emotional scars. But right when they star to connect, Molly is shot and killed in a battle against a gang of criminals. Jack forgets about all that opening up and just wants revenge. I have two endings in mind also. The first has the main boss die, Adam is mysteriously gone, and Jack is dying against a wall. The second has the main boss die, but Adam and Jack get into a stand-off. That’s all I got. Though it doesn’t seem like it, I have all the characters fleshed-out since they were kids up until the movie begins. Also, I wanted to keep the story simple so I could keep it character-driven. The problem with me is that I’m indecisive and I suck at thinking up different scenes to keep the story going. If I can get ten pages written up, then I’ll post them. Until then...

 

Oh, and I don't know how to fix the spacings and it's pissing me off... you like the three dot theme throughout? Original right?

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