Pride: the man, the mystery, the awesome.

Not Comin’ Home

Looks like it’s certain now- I will not be coming back to hamilton this summer.  I don’t know if I ever told you Rex, but the guys I’m working with are going to try to get some paid gigs for the break.  I’m also working on 3D animation (finally) and I’ve got my job at the printing place…

Seems like lately everybody is pretty preoccupied with getting the fuck out of Dodge (Hamilton/Keokuk) anyway and I don’t blame them…

Seein Rex’s artwork has got me feeling the itch again- I need to start drawing soon.  It’s disgraceful how badly I’ve neglected my art the past year, but since falling out with many of my geeky hobbies from the past I just don’t feel inspired any longer.  Feels like I lost touch with something extremely important.  Maybe that feeling will fade.

On a Side Note this show is crazy.  The fish in this scare the crap out of me.  Last week, they showed this family that lives above piranha breeding grounds.  How the hell can you rationalize that!?  These people lost a child when he accidently fell in.  Oh, did I mention that their house fuckin’ floats?  And the piranha are so thick you can’t even stick your foot in.  They’re just asking for trouble!  At least move your house to the shore!

This week it’s on “The Goonch,” a catfish which has apparently taken to human flesh in India.  Guess how this fish got aggressive…

They throw dead bodies in the rivers over there and the damn things were eating them.  Now they’re massive and possibly responsible for many, many disappearances. Gotta love Cryptozoology, nothing is ever certain…

Things I’m excited about…

After visiting home this weekend and catching a glimpse at Rex’s recent activity on “teh tumblrs,” I thought I’d come back and give tumblin’ another go. 

Sticking to my original concept, I’m going to keep my personal issues (mostly) out of my posts and stick to posting about stuff I care about (namely dinosaurs, games, movies, and other crap usually reserved for an age group I’ve long grown out of).  So for my first post in a while, Ima gonna post some stuffs for everyone to look forward to over the next year, as well as projects I’m currently involved in:

1)  http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40683  I can’t wait for this movie.  Though most of my exposure to the series was Star Trek 2.0 on G4 and reruns of The Next Generation, I’ve grown pretty fond of the franchise and I can’t wait to see it renewed.

2)  http://dawnofwar2.com/us/home  Though I’ve fallen out with video games as of late due to having my spread myself so thin with school, my fraternity, and other film related projects, I did pick up Dawn of War 2 last month and me and Scott Newlon have been playing the hell out of it.  No base building, a great cover system, fast pace action, and everything that was good in Relic’s past RTS make this one of the best games I’ve played in years.  

3)  http://kotaku.com/5204550/konamis-iraq-war-game-brouhaha  I don’t know what to think of this.  While I am excited by the possibility of a realistic, truly representative video game about war, I highly doubt that’s the product we will receive.  Kotaku has some reactions from actual soldiers about the game floating around in its pages somewhere that are especially telling, as they seem terribly unenthused about the entire project.  This simply seems inappropriate to me if this turns into another Call of Duty style shooter, where the enemies are simply faceless targets on an empty street where discretion is not necessary.    The developers state that actual insurgents who were involved in the conflict were, to some mysterious extent, asked to contribute to the game.  What this means, I’m not sure.  Perhaps the option to play through the campaign as an insurgent?  

I wouldn’t count on it.

4)  http://www.joeltrussell.com/#/latest  This guy’s work is so good!  He’s done work for a ton of different clients, all of it good.  I recommend watching “Enjoy the Ride” under his motion work.  When I get my Cintiq 12WX I’m following in this man’s footsteps and producing some animation of my own.

5)  Last thing I’m excited about:  GIT GOB!  Best thing on the interweb?  Probably.

As for projects I’m working on now, I’m currently writing a pilot for a tv show that I’d like to shoot this summer, as well as scouting film festivals for my film crew.  I’m also trying to earn money for the cintiq 12WX I mentioned earlier, workin on some graphic work from Kappa Alpha Order, and tryin’ to find paid work.

Anyone need a commercial shot?

Warhammer MMO- I have played it. This is an early review.

So, I played Warhammer.  I’m only level 10, so it’s still early to start judging the game.  However, I’d like to give a list of Likes and Dislikes that I hope you will find informative.  I’ll be updating this regularly, hitting things point by point.  For now, I’d just like to hit upon what I like about the game.  First off, RVR- the PVP of WAR:

-  WAAAAR!  From the very get go- levels as early as 2 or 3- you are taking part of massive RVR battles.  Said battles are comparable to WoW’s BG’s, but WAR has a much larger assortment and, for the most part, just feels bigger.  Many battles include the usable seige weaponry or some kind of grand, cinematic element to keep them interesting.  In an early RVR battleground, both sides (Order being the equivalent to Alliance, Destruction the Horde) are fighting for control of two flags.  When one team holds both flags for ten seconds, a god smites both flags with a gigantic pillar of fire- killing everyone near them.  You get an automatic 100 points for getting the flags, and even more for catching the enemy team inside them.  The pillar does extend, but it does so at a rate that allows for escape.

Things aren’t limited to instanced BG’s, however.  Like some areas of WoW, certain areas have objects that can be controlled by factions.  Also like WoW, holding them give various bonuses to the controlling factions, but unlike WoW, holding them can have traumatic long term effects.  Let me explain:

RVR is split into three separate battles-  Chaos (demonic forces) vs The Empire (humans), Elves and dark elves, and orcs and dwarves.  Each Realm occupy a part of the world together and fight for certain objectives.  Capturing objectives in a zone can lock down that zone for your faction and allow the capture of the next zone.  Capture enough, and you’re allowed to assault the opposing factions home fortress.  These battles are gigantic.  I’ve seen them in motion, and my god are things crazy.  Itd be the equivalent to all the Horde assaulting Iron Forge, destroying it, and keeping it off limits to the Alliance for a set period of time.  While the keep is taken, the victim’s faction is absolutely demoralized, feeling many different negative effects.

But capturing objectives is just as epic.  Trying to take a zone over can take a lot of time and manpower, and the fights get intense.  In one fight over an early RVR zone, the enemy mobilized poison goop cannons against our forces.  We had pushed them all the way to their home camp in the area and I was standing over them on a cliff firing arrows at them.  Standing next to me was a healer and a tank, and we were discussing the best tactic to push them (The guild, as a whole, that is) when I was completely knocked off my feet by a shot fired from inside the camp.  They had targeted me with their cannons, and managed to not only take out me but the two others next to us with well focused canon fire.  Nobody seemed to have saw this coming, and the inclusion of such firepower literally stopped our forces in their tracks.  We had to pull back to the battle zone realizing that nobody was capable of assaulting them with an army at their gates and canons behind their walls.  By next week, I would expect this to have changed, as our highest leveled character was only 22.  I can’t wait to see how RVR grows as I approach the level cap.

Greatest Song Evrar?

How appropriate is this post?  Rediculously.

Ok, so The Mountain Goats, if you’ve never heard of them, are this awesome Folkish Rockish Band akin to, say…  The Decemberists or Neutral Milk Hotel.  I sort of fell in love with them earlier this year when they released their single “Sax Rohmer”.  Great Song.

Anyway, on to why this matters:

These guys sing about pretty obscure things.  “Heretic Pride,” for instance, is told from the perspective of a man who is being buried alive, apparently for heresy, in the town square.  But this morning I got online and saw they had a new EP.  Jouyous day indeed.  Even better, one of their songs is about Super Mario Bros.  It’s called “Thank You Mario, but Our Princess is in Another Castle.”

Told from the perspective of Toad.  The mushroom guy at the end of the dungeons?

Here’s the link.  Listen to it.

http://www.imeem.com/pitchforkmedia/music/bU9uJz8I/the_mountain_goats_and_kaki_king_thank_you_mario_but_our_pri/?d=1