|
5-18-05,
10:43 PM
Go back
to Jersey, Sonny. This is the City
of the Angels and you haven't got
any wings.
 Music:
Ben Lee - Aftertaste
Right, so, it's been a while, I
apologize. I've been quite happy
taking advantage of having the house
all to myself these last couple
days, lounging about and playing
games on my new system. Anyway,
first things first, the movie idea
my dad pitched to me a couple months
ago, and I can't believe I forgot
about it until recently.
My
eyes flutter open, someone's shaking
me awake, repeating my name several
times. I'm laying in my bed, and I
focus on my father's face. I think I
managed to say "mur" before he
launched into his idea. He's talking
at a pace and energy and near
incomprehensibility I can only
compare to Quentin Tarantino.
"Kyle, Kyle, wake up, you've got to
hear this. I just had this dream, it
would make a great movie. Okay,
right, I'm playing this game, okay?
It's got these tanks, and I figure
out some way to make the tanks real?
Get it? They're the game tanks, but
they're real. I've got all
these game tanks, they're small, in
the back yard. But I manage to open
one of them up, and they all have
this computer chip in them. I take
one of the chips out and I take it
to this professor and the professor
tells me 'Well this... this is a
super chip, this is faster than
anything else out there. We can sell
this!' 'But won't the game people be
able to scan the chip and find out
where we got it and we'll be in
trouble?' 'Oh... Oh, you're right,
we have to keep this a secret!' So
we don't do anything about it, but
there are all these robots that look
like people around, okay? And when
there's a new model they fight and
kill the older model, and I put one
of the super chips in the robot and
when the newer robots come to kill
him he kills them instead, and
nobody can figure out how. But we
decide that he has to leave and go
away before they catch him and he
says okay and he leaves... That's
about right when I woke up. Wouldn't
that make a great movie?"
This was a lot to process for
someone just regaining
consciousness, but already I knew
the answer to that question was no,
though that wasn't my response. I
just said he had about five
different ideas all smashed together
there.
He got up, still excited, and I
heard him through the wall in the
living room putting my mother
through the same thing.
I
had been debating whether or not to
do coverage of E3 like I did last
year, but since the show has already
begun, I might just wait until the
whole shebang is over and just give
you the best bits.
More
later
-K.
wrap your head around that, colonel
sanders
5-10-05,
11:02 PM
Be a
mensch!
A
quick update before I trundle off to
bed and start another exciting day,
because something happened that I
thought was rather funny. In between
work and my evening class I had a
short amount of time that I could
use to get something to eat, so I
stopped off to have a quick bite
near campus. At the counter, I was
behind a young man wearing a black
shirt under a thin army jacket with
the sleeves cut off. There was what
appeared to be a short story written
on the back of this jacket in black
Sharpie that started with something
about how "the qualities of life in
America have become increasingly
un-American as time goes by," though
I didn't have time to finish reading
all of it I had a pretty good idea
what was in the middle, but the end
was hard to miss, since it was
written in much larger letters at
the bottom "...WHICH WILL BECOME THE
FUEL FOR ALL MINDLESS ROBOTS!!"
Maybe it's me, but it was at this
point I found it ironic to be
standing behind such a person in a
McDonald's.
I'm
also adding a note here to remind
myself to talk about the impossibly
convoluted dream-inspired movie idea
my father pitched to me several
weeks ago in the next update.
-K.
danger
5-10-05,
10:52 AM
My 3:00
patient jumped out of the window in
the middle of his session. I have
been running fifteen minutes ahead
of schedule ever since.
 Music: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy OST - Journey of the Sorcerer
I've
got a little unexpected free time on
my hands. Turns out today's
scriptwriting class was under a
different final exam schedule that I
failed to read, but no matter, Joe's
a really laidback guy and the "final
exam" is just my finished first act.
Which it's not finished, but he
didn't seem to really care about
that either, taking the half that I
had finished and asking me to get
the rest to him at the time of
"whenever."
I
really like Joe.
Anyway, it's been a while, and a few
things have changed in the seemingly
short period since we last met. Most
importantly, Blake's gone. I never
thought I'd see the day, but he is
completely moved out and nothing of
his remains. He still manages to pop
by about once a day, but I think
I'll be able to tolerate it.
Next, I put together my new system,
and I do so love it. I'm surprised I
managed to get it all together
without any problems, just a pair of
scratched up hands. I didn't bother
connecting all of the wires to the
motherboard, so the USB ports and
temperature monitor on the front of
the case don't work, but other than
that it's all working out fine. This
20.1" LCD widescreen monitor must
have been created by gods, and the
system itself runs like a champ. It
is a very nice feeling to be able to
crank out a constant FPS in
Half-Life 2 that's well above 30
at 1680x1050.
I'm only on my third week and I'm
already starting to hate my job,
since I am constantly on my feet,
doing simple but tedious work and
I'm not looking forward to switching
to full time. I purchased an iPod
over the weekend and loaded it with
some audiobooks, including the
complete original Hitchhiker's
Guide radio show, to pass
the time and it has helped somewhat,
but I still come home with really
sore feet.
Speaking of jobs, last Friday I
found out that I would be much
better working at the South County
mall EB than the clown that's there
now. After work on Friday, the day
after I got my system put together,
I was eager to spend some time with
it, try a few games on it, so I went
directly to EB after I got off. I
picked up copies of Rainbow Six
3: Gold Edition, The
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From
Butcher Bay, and Far Cry.
I get home, take off my shoes, sit
down and rest my feet on a pillow
under the chair. I open the Far
Cry box, removing the large
jewel case, and I take out the first
CD and place it in my DVD-RW drive.
Before the AutoPlay screen comes up
I notice something strange: There's
only three CDs in the case. Now,
that might not seem strange, but the
other two CDs are marked "4" and
"5." Examining the back of the box I
learn that, indeed, Far Cry
is a game that spans 5 discs.
Goddamn it.
It should be important to note that
when you purchase a used PC title
from an Electronics Boutique, the
clerk behind the counter must open a
large drawer containing several rows
of CDs in paper sleeves, and must
remove all appropriate discs to be
put in the corresponding box. The
numbers on the discs are fairly
clear, and there are five different
places for CDs to be held in the
jewel case, so he didn't even manage
to give me three discs that were in
the same order, which might have
made it an understandable mistake.
My feet really hurt, I don't want to
put my shoes back on and fight with
rush hour traffic again because this
asshat made a mistake, but I have
to. On the way back to the mall I
decided that I was too nice of a guy
in these sorts of situations, my
aching feet reminding me that I've
applied several times to work at EB,
and it reassures me I could be doing
a much better job. Mostly because I
know how to count, even all the way
up to five. I began to work myself
up into anger, with all intentions
of releasing it on the clerk,
hopefully to shame him in front of
other customers or, at the very
least, ruin his day and potentially
his weekend.
It turned out to be a day where I
just couldn't win, as I discovered
shortly after I left the guy's shift
was over and he was long gone. I'm
forced to swallow my anger because
this new girl behind the counter had
nothing to do with it, she didn't
deserve to be harassed. Goddamn it.
I also found out later that in the
Rainbow Six 3 box, containing
copies of both Raven Shield
and Athena Sword, that he
managed to put the two sets of discs
in the opposite cases, but I was
able to let that one slide.
Riddick was, to my surprise,
completely in tact, even though that
also is 5 discs, but perhaps that
was because they were courteous enough to put "of 5" after every
disc number to avoid such
mind-boggling packing confusion.
-K.
now who wants ice cream?
5-2-05,
9:13 PM
Cheating
on a quiz show? That's sort of like
plagiarizing a comic strip.
Music:
Ben Lee - Nothing Much Happens
Alright, thought I'd get this out of
the way before I attempt to buckle
down and see how much work in this
semester I can finish during the
night. I really don't want to end up
staying awake for 36 hours, but that
might be the case.
Anyway.
1. Music question, since
everyone gets one: Favorite bands
pre-1990s. At least five of them in
no order.
1. David Bowie
2. The Who
3. Iggy Pop
4. The Pixies
5. The Beatles (What a surprising
and unique answer!)
2. Why do you want to be a
filmmaker, exactly? A
well-thought-out answer here.
I've never been asked this before
and not having an immediate answer
scared me a little. More than
anything it would be about wanting
to be a storyteller rather than an
"artist," and there's a difference;
I don't have anything unique to
express. Very early on I toyed with
the idea of being a cartoonist or an
animator, until I figured out early
on that I can't draw, and Chicago &
Geoff back that up. Becoming a
novelist was another consideration,
but I never thought I was very good
at it, and I preferred presenting
things visually. Film, to me,
allowed a suitable balance between
the two fields, unfortunately it's
also much more expensive.
The funny answer is that I don't
want to have to get a real job.
3. If you could pit any two
screenwriters against each other,
gladiator-like, net and trident
weaponry, which two any why? What if
you could change the weapons, what
would they be or would that change
the writers?
Since I assume this would be to
the death I would place screenwriter
and creator of Hack David
Koepp versus Riddick scribe
David Twohy just because at least
one of them would end up dead. Also
because I am waging a holy war
against people named David (Bowie,
Cross and Letterman will be spared). Yes,
I would change the weapons, to
blowguns containing darts tipped
with slow-acting poison, preferably
something that liquefies internal
organs while they're still alive.
4. Who is, in [y]our respected
opinion, the single greatest
director of all time? Actor? Writer?
And finally, actress?
Since you didn't say I needed to
expand on my answers and I'm pressed
for time I'll just give the short
version:
Akira Kurosawa
Jack Nicholson
Raymond Chandler
Ingrid Bergman
5. What SW game would you like
me to run next? It doesn't even have
to be an official setting; something
as simple as a concept for a
homebrew would do.
Something 1930's, noir-ish.
Gangsters, private eyes, that sort
of thing. Maybe even zombies...
Gangster zombies.
-K.
come
downstairs and say hello
5-2-05,
2:23 AM
How
would you feel if you'd been dead a
day and a half and someone brought
you more bad news?
Music:
Ben Folds - Bastard
Updated the What to Think section.
I
really can't wait for this semester
to be over, and I'll be genuinely
surprised if I manage to get through
the rest of it unscathed. I sort of
miss the days when I thought it was
sacrilege to not have assignments
done on time, where I'd stay up all
night if necessary to finish it. Now
I struggle just getting myself to
start working, because often I don't
see the point. Part of it being that
the odds of me succeeding in my
chosen field aren't slim, they're
anorexic, and this is on my mind a
lot. I stress out quite a bit in my
spare time, which suffice it to say
isn't healthy. Also, I'm not going
to prove myself by writing about
realism versus expressionism in
Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown,
I need some serious time behind a
camera.
Really, much of the stress comes
from not having a solid backup plan
when I fail. I would love to get
into voice work, but even if I were,
by the grace of God, to break into
that, it's not exactly rolling in
the dough.
I don't want to be stuck with doing
something I'd hate, but then again,
I also don't want to be poor.
-K.
'the whiz man'
never fit him like 'the whiz kid'
did
|
