Its about time!

It’s about time! Its 2008 already and finally we are getting decent jet pack flying suits! WhoooHOOOOOOoooo!

You can read the short accompany story about Yves Rossy's flight here, read an interview with him about the flight here, or just watch the cool video below.


My friend Daniel pointed out that Yves Rossy has taken a few test flights before this one. Here is a link to a page showing earlier stuff from 2006.

Went to the dealership last weekend, the new flying cars still aren't in.

Traveling Back to the Past to Save the Future!

I was using my blog this morning as a leaping off point for a few news links to read up on what has been happening out there in on The Internets. (Just did a quick check to see if www.theinternets.com was registered; because if it wasn't I was gonna be all over that. Nothing at the URL but it is registered.)

I realized that I hadn't posted anything in a while. Problem is I haven't really been doing much. I went bowling last weekend, but... really... bowling! Not very exciting. I had a date the weekend before, but she turned out to be a blithering racist pinhead and that's really all I want to say about that.

I thought to myself that what I really needed something to complain about. I'm not really happy unless I'm complaining about something; at least that's what my mother has been telling me for years.

While I am thinking all this, unbeknown to me, Rowan is on Moby Games looking through some Lands of Lore II screen shots. Which leads him to my profile and in turn to my "additional pictures" page where he finds the lovely and embarrassing picture to the left. I just want to say that Oakley Razorblades were very much in style at the time. I remember the picture, it was cut from a team picture for BattleTech II: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge taken out in front of Westwood's building on Sprint Mountain Road circa 1991.

I actually have two cool stories about that picture. The first one was that I used to hang out on a pre-internet, multi-user dial up BBS called Multi-Comm. It was a very social group on the board and we used to meet every Saturday at Bob Baskin Park in the summer and at Shakey's Pizza in the winter (until they threw us out). At one of these gatherings one of the younger kigs had the Battletech II manual which was a big blue print and stat book of all the mechs. At the end of the night I asked him what he was looking at and he excitedly started telling me about the game. I flipped through the manual to the picture at the back, said something clever which escapes me now (and probably wasn't really all that clever - but who am I to let the facts ruin a good story) and handed it back to him.

Now you are thinking, "What an ass! Did you offer to autograph it for him or something you loser?"

No I didn't. But years later after Westwood was shut down I flew up to Seattle to interview for a job a Ubisoft with Tony Van. It just so happen that somebody had sent him their copy of the BattleTech II manual asking him to autograph his picture and that lucky guy also got my autograph as well.

Back to the point, none of that is what I have to complain about. Not even the fact that Rowan decided to send the picture to the entire Perth Interzone office. Note that he didn't just the link it, but actually attached the picture to the email itself. No, not even that. It was what happened once one of the artist, Darren, got a hold of it. I had walked over to the other building with the vending machines and found the picture below taped to the front door of the office when I walked back in.

Excellent work Darren, just know - both you and Rowan - that vengeance will be mine! Further investigation leads me to also blame Christian Klein aka Lightnight for posting the picture on Moby Games. I think I'll try to email Christian and show him what he has wrought. I just love using the word 'wrought' in a sentence.

(It is pretty cool picture though...)

B.R.A.V.E. by Andy Hawkins

My friend Andy Hawkins at work has been working on a little pet project game for some time called B.R.A.V.E. "British Response to Alien inVasion of Earth." He is entered into a game design contest which has been running for a year now and ends on the 31st. Here is the forum with the competition. I think he has basically done everything all by himself except for the recent addition of his sister to do some modeling work.

Andy sent out an email at work a little while ago with a link to his latest version and I flagged it so I could check it out later. Unfortunately it just got buried in my in box and I forgot about it until he pointed out today that the contest deadline is in 2 days. I just wanted to make this quick post to wish him luck.

I started making my own little game twice now, once with the original Neverwinter Nights editor and then again as a Text Adventure using the Adrift engine. The text adventure one was coming along nicely until I tried to do several things that were dependent on which direction the player entered from and set it aside after two weeks fighting with the engine and then never picked it up again. That was about four years ago and I've no idea how far Campbell Wild has taken the editor since then.

No School Like Old School

Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men, passed way on Monday, April 14, of natural causes. He was 95 years old.

Full story via News-a-Rama

I'm surprised at how really sad I am at this news. He co-wrote "The Illusion of Life" which I've always meant to pick-up but never did. Think I'll make a point of grabbing a copy this weekend.

Hyper Magazine Interview

It has been a few months now so I feel like it should be okay for me to post my Hyper Magazine interview now. I don't think its right to scan in and post articles while the magazine is still fresh on the news stand. It is from issue number 173 pictured to the left.

I tried to clean the scanned picture up as well as shrink it down so that it isn't giant but is still readable. I also marked the "15 years" should be "23 years" correction. Click on the image to get a full sized, readable version.

This is a stick-up!

A few days ago one of the main featured stories on Yahoo's main page was something about how Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" ranked against the real mega corporations of the world. The story is here if you want to read it but that isn't what I want to talk about.

As I said this was one of the main featured stories on Yahoo's front page (U.S. version). It had a picture and small text blurb right in the center of the page and a few related links under it. One of these links said, "Search for World of Warcraft cheats." I had taken a screen shot of it, but then forgot to actually paste it into a picture and save it.

Maybe it was a generated link and its just based off the fact that the story was about a video game. But when we are talking about these kind of multi-player games cheating isn't the same as when you are just playing a single player game looking for infinite lives. Your actions in multi-player games, especially "pay to play" multi-player games like these modern MMO's, affect the games of other players.

If you're a WoW player you can imagine the things you could get up to if you had access to cheats like you can get in single player games. Cheats like invulnerability, flying or max damage cheats. Remember when the gold farms were able to teleport around the world and they just popped from one mine or herb to the next all over the zone? Remember how it felt to battle your way through a few mobs to reach that black lotus when suddenly there a level 3 gnome appears out of nowhere, picks it and then vanishes?

Having that link up there like that is almost the same as them having a story about the rise or fall of interest rates in the U.S. banking system and then having a link underneath the story that says "Search for bank robbing tips."

More fun with THQ

Oh look another one.

Dear Joseph,

We are complimented by your recent application for the Sr. Game Designer Level 2 (13523) position with THQ. Although we are impressed by your skills, we are unable to offer you an interview at this time. This job has been filled by another candidate who more closely meets the position requirements.
Your resume is on file with us for future consideration. Should an applicable position come available, you will be contacted.

Your interest in our company is greatly appreciated. Please accept our best wishes for your future successes.

Sincerely,
Recruiting Department
THQ

Note that they are still impressed with my skills. I still have to take issue with their innovative and creative use of the word "recent". Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe they got some new head HR person who look around and said , "WTF! Look at all these applications that have been piling up for months! Clear these out! Send these people reply emails so we don't look like one of those companies who doesn't bother responding to applicants."

Honestly though, I have no room to talk. I used to get applications on my desk back in the day that would get buried under other paper work until some poor HR person would have to come around and ask, "Do you still have those applications I gave you last month?" I really hope we wrote those people back even if it was months later.

Dear THQ

April 02, 2008
Dear Joseph,

We are complimented by your recent application for the Senior Designer (23684) position with THQ. Although we are impressed by your skills, we are unable to offer you an interview at this time. This job has been filled by another candidate who more closely meets the position requirements.

Your resume is on file with us for future consideration. Should an applicable position come available, you will be contacted.

Your interest in our company is greatly appreciated. Please accept our best wishes for your future successes.

Sincerely,
Recruiting Department
THQ

Dear THQ,

Thank you for getting back to me regarding my application for the Senior Designer (23684) position at your company; though I have to take issue with your use of the word "recent". Although I was impressed enough with your company to send you an application, I much less so now. That fact that it has taken you over four months to respond to a serious application for a position of this level leads me to believe that I would not find success in working for you.

Please accept my best wishes that you develop better business practices in the future.

P.S. I got a promotion today. I am now the Lead Game Designer of my current project. Please send Amazon.com gift certificates in lieu of congratulations.

Sincerely,
Joseph B. Hewitt IV
Lead Game Designer
Interzone Games - Perth

Can You Find a Wii?

I was reading through the latest various news sites this morning and two things caught my attention.

The first was Mr. Squinty guy, Hal Halpin - founder of the Entertainment Consumer Association, and his little dissertation on how the EULAs (End User License Agreements) are getting out of hand and that we should do something about it.

EULAs are a real and tangible problem for our business. Quite simply, they're out of control. The best intentions of lawyers in the business aside, these contracts have become so unwieldy that they regularly infringe on consumer rights. Many would likely be unenforceable in a court of law. Others, consumers would be shocked to find out what all of that fine print actually meant.

He is proposing a committee get together and discuss the problems and see if they can't work out some sort of standardization. At this point I would be happy if they just got them to the point that they are readable with requiring you to have a 4-year law degree and that they didn't require the sacrifice of your first born child. Anyway I guess will have to wait and see if he goes anywhere with this. I think it is exactly the kind of thing the ECA should be working on and that doing so will help increase its membership, legitimacy, and clout.

The second thing that caught my attention was KBC Securities Japan, which on Thursday downgraded Nintendo stock from a "Buy" rating to a "Hold" rating and cut its 12-month price estimate by 30 percent to 57,500 yen ($580), according to Bloomberg.com. The reason I latched onto this was that my friend Mike went through Perth yesterday trying to buy a Nintendo Wii. NOBODY had them in stock. How can they say Wii sales have peeked if they still haven't managed to catch up with sales demand 2 years after its original launch? Seriously, every console has always been hard to find during it's first Christmas season, but its 3 months after its second Christmas and you still can't find them in stock. Granted this is Australia. Anybody know the chances of finding a Wii in stores in the U.S.? Not just your local game store either, but in department stores as well.

Would you like fries with that?

Going through the drive through of a fast-food place here in Australia is a different experience than in the U.S. It has its own vibe and is missing the cadence one normally falls into with the voice in the speaker. They also don’t use the same lingo or assumptions. For example If you order a Whopper and you don’t specify “with cheese,” you get it without; which is the reverse in the states where cheese is assumed and you have to say “without cheese.” They also don’t recognize “diet” as a drink off the bat and sometime you’ll get asked, “Do you mean diet Coke?” I don’t get how a country that abbreviates even some one syllable words, doesn't get shortening “diet Coke” to just “diet.” Especially when that is the only diet drink they serve.

Once a friend of mine asked for orange soda and got the minimum wage stare combined with “umm… do you mean Fanta?”

“Do you have any other orange flavored sodas?”

“umm no.”

“Do you know that Fanta is the brand name and that they make many different flavors of soda?”

Defiantly, “yeah.”

“Then I’d like an orange soda please.”

The reason I bring this all up is that I have just come back from a quick trip to Hungry Jacks, the Australian name for Burger King, where I had to actually tell the drive through speaker girl to stop talking so I could finish giving her my order.

The normal problem is as soon as you rattle off the first item to the speaker box they are instantly telling you your total and for you to drive to the first window. Most of the time if you didn’t tell them what drink or size you wanted, they just assume no upsize and Coke. God forbid if you want more than one thing.

I was trying to order a Whopper with cheese combo, no pickle, no onion, with diet coke to drink for myself and a Bacon Deluxe with a large fries for a friend.

I got as far as “I’d like a Whopper combo…” when she broke in and started telling me my total. I raised my voice to continue, “no pickle, no onion” and again she started telling me my total and to please drive forward. I raised my voice more, “with diet Coke to drink please.” And again she started and I finally had to say “Stop talking! I’m not done!”

I didn’t mean to snap like that but it’s been building up. I meant to say, “Please stop talking” but didn’t. The whole process of going through the drive through here fills me with unaccustomed anxiety. I am used to the speaker voice waiting for me to pause before then asking, “anything else?’ Some times I’ll just go in and order at the counter to avoid the hassle. In the end though you should never be rude to people making your food. I don’t think I need to elaborate on that.

While I’m the subject there let me also tell you an important bit of information regarding the word “Burger” here. In Australia anything between two halves of a bun is a burger. It’s not a chicken sandwich it’s a chicken burger. This is really important when you see an item on the menu that reads “bacon burger.” This is not a hamburger with bacon; it is bacon on a bun and that’s it. The first week I was in Australia I ordered a bacon burger and then went up to complain that it was missing the actual burger.

Paying for Digital Download of TV Shows, Part 2

I just don’t understand why I never have time to write. Its like all I do is wake up, go to work, come home and eat, watch Daily Show, Colbert Report, Tonight Show, and Conan and its time to go to bed.

So starting up where I left off last. I have since bought 3 episodes of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." That does confirm that you can indeed buy shows from the American iTunes store even if you are coming from a non-U.S. IP address. All they care about is a U.S. billing address on the credit card.

As far as the show goes, believe it or not I’m watching them on my iPod screen. I used to laugh at the thought of watching videos on a little iPod screen. On one of my recent plane trips the guys next to me asked me how the video was on the iPod screen and I told him I hadn’t watched any. He said that somebody had told them that it was much better than you would expect. So long story even longer, I tried it and it is so watch-able!

I was lying in bed watching it and it occurred to me that from the distance I was holding it up it was actually be the same size as a decent sized television across the room. I tried to take a picture to illustrate this, but it didn’t work out due to lighting issues. In the old days I would have started dragging lights around, but I figured you guys would get the concept. To be honest, it was about halfway through dragging the lights around and taking some test shots that didn’t work out too well I figured you guys would get the concept.

I was explaining it to my friend Brad at work, showing him how good the video looked. He held it up to get the 'tv across the room effect' and then took it one step further. He held it even closer and "BAM! You got yourself a 40 inch plasma baby!"

Anyway, it’s so cool to have a portable television. I’m waiting for Jeremy to arrange to get his mattress delivered at the Ikea and am I bored watching some 5 year old bang his head repeatedly into the soda machine? Nope, I watching Summer Glau kick some ass! Granted the kid was kind of entertaining for a few minutes.

Oh and that reminds me… Cameron, not only is issue #12 of "Buffy: Season 8" out, but so is the first issue of the new "Serenity: Better Days" mini-series.

iTunes Artwork LIES!

I was going to write up part 2 of "Paying for Digital Download of TV Shows" but although I did succeed in buying and downloading the second episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" (which the internet seems to have settled on the acronym "Terminator:TSCC" which I will adopt) with my U.S. iTunes account, I haven't actually watched it yet. I just checked that it played, which it did although appeared to be stuttering slightly. That may just because my machine needs a reboot after running and updating the giant memory hogging ComicBase comic book data base. Its also my older, less powerful machine as my newer one isn't working after the move to Perth. I looks like its the motherboard.

Anyway I copied the episode over to my new iPod and it appeared to run on that fine. Better than fine actually, it looks really good on the tiny iPod screen. Much much better than I expected.

Now as to why I haven't watched it yet is because all that messing with iTunes has got me looking into why iTunes can't import the album artwork for the CDs I've imported. I can find them on Gracenote (aka CDDB) , which is where iTunes gets its track and art information. But even if I copy the album and artist information over exactly, iTunes still complains it can't find the album artwork.

For example I have The Eagles - Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2 which I had entered originally entered as "Eagles Greatest Hits, Volume 2" -note the comma. I changed it to match Gracenote and still iTunes fails. I don't have a lot of CD's imported, maybe 35ish if you count each CD for some compilations and all the CDs included in the Monty Python Instant Record Collection CD version (which has different sketches than the original vinyl records). It wouldn't take too long import the artwork in manually for the 25ish it pretends it can't find artwork for. But its driving me nuts trying to figure out iTunes is lying to me and not working automatically.

Also Foxtel is up and working and The Daily Show and the rest of my shows are one. I still don't believe its actually working... in both rooms. The guy had to run new outlets for each AND he installed a phone line in my computer room which had an phone extension running across the hall from the bedroom. Now the only thing that I need to cover with one of those rubber "cord you are running across the hallway" protectors is the power extension cable because there is no outlet on the wall where I have the TV entertainment center set-up in the living room. The point being he did it all, wham bamm, done and he was out of here in no time. Installation in the apartment in Brisbane took all day!

Paying for Digital Download of TV Shows, Part 1

I am looking at a few TV shows online that I want to watch such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Burn Notice, Dirty Sexy Money and season 2 of Heroes and Dexter. These are currently running or have just completed their run in the states but are only few episodes into their run here in Australia. One of my many deeply seeded problems is that once I’ve missed an episode, which I have on all the above, I won’t watch any more till I can fill in that hole. The current over arcing problem I have having which is the genesis of this long winded rant is that there are quite a number of episodes of these shows available as digital downloads on Amazon and the iTunes store for $1.99 USD.

One problem I have with buying the digital downloads is that once I buy something I am an anal retentive pack rat that must collect and horde all my treasures. With digital downloads I don’t have anything physical to clasp my frequently washed yet still grubby little hands onto. I need something to put on a shelf and display for all to see and admire.

“Yes! Look in wonder at my collection, admire my Lord of the Ring extended editions and bask in the glory of my William Gibson documentary.”

I have sort of gotten over that issue with regard to buying unabridged audio books from Audible.com. I have acknowledged the glory of being able to sort through the book covers in iTunes. I also know that if something happens to my computer I can download the lost files again from Audible with no hassle. Something happening like say just for an example just off the top of my head: I have them all on my work computer and the company suddenly goes under and I don’t get a chance to copy them all off my hard drive; I won’t be screwed. For that peace of mind I am somewhat willing to jump through the hoops they make me, a legitimate customer, go through when dealing with the Digital Rights Management also known as DRM. I’m pretty sure iTunes doesn’t offer you the ability to re-download a file you may have lost and although I haven’t checked into Amazon’s policy in that regard I’m going to bet it’s similarly a one shot download deal. This is also one of the reasons I prefer to buy a music CD and rip it into iTunes rather than buy it from the iTunes store. Though, I hear that the RIAA’s new hard line claims that is actually stealing, but lets not digress this rant into that ramble.

I don’t know if I can make the digital leap with television and movies yet. With audio books I know I have access to them in all the places where I want to hear them. I copy them to my iPod which I can listen to via headphones or through the car’s stereo system. Copying them from computer to computer is easy; in contrast with anything else iTunes / iPod related where it’s a pain in the ass. With a DVD I know I can just pop it into any player; be it an actual player in the living room attached to the TV, built into the computer, or even built into the latest console gaming system (thought lets not get me started again on region coding). I also get cool extras like commentaries and deleted scenes with the DVD collections.

The main point of all that can be boiled down to the increased chance of failure the phrase “in my computer room on a monitor” has when added to the question “Hey baby, wanna come back to my place and cuddle up in front of the latest Dexter episodes?”

Now the question I am asking myself is this: am looking at this all wrong? Should I just view the $1.99 like the fee for renting a movie or even seeing it in the theatre? Of those TV shows mentioned above, several of them are shows I know I’ll only watch once. If I was watching them as they aired during their regular season I wouldn’t even be thinking twice about them. So what if I spend two bucks to catch up with season two of Heroes. And lets say I do delete the files in a week, a month, or when I’m upgrading computers should I care? It’s only 2 bucks an episode to watch them NOW and I can still buy the damn DVD box set later when it comes out. Though looking at the prices for Dexter’s first season on Amazon: 12 episodes that would be $24 dollars for all the downloaded episodes versus the discounted price of $28 dollars for the boxed DVD set. I do see there is an option for $19 dollars to download the entire season, but this doesn’t really count for the stuff I am talking about since most of their seasons aren’t complete yet. Amazon doesn't appear to offer digital downloads of shows whose DVD boxed sets aren't available yet or at least not for Burn Notice. iTune's "buy all episodes" button is the same price as buying all the episodes individually for the incomplete 7 episode season of Terminator but does have a discounted $19.95 "Buy Season" button for all 12 episodes of Burn Notice.

I should throw in a couple of other issue such as living in a third world internet country known as Australia where there is no such think as an unlimited internet plan. You either pay out the nose for going over your download limit or they knock your internet speed down to dial-up speed for the rest of the month. Let’s also not forget the issue of storage space. These files tend to eat up hard drive space pretty quickly and become more and more unwieldy to try and transfer from computer to computer where DVDs sit nicely on the shelf and look pretty.

Minor Update

I just had a little time to kill since the new Perth Ikea isn't open on Sunday. So I updated my profile with cropped picture from the Hyper magazine article which is only a few months old and shows me with the more up to date short hair. I also moved some stuff around on the sidebar, added an Amazon Wish List link, fixed a spelling mistake, and got rid of a non-relevant link. I'm also looking into putting a RSS link up so poor little Cameron doesn't have to go through all the work of actually coming here to read these exciting updates anymore.

Zero Punctuations goes to GDC and mentions FURY!

Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame was invited to help host the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC this year with one of his videos. The coolest thing about it... he mentions FURY! Not much point drawing that intro out since I mention it in the title of the post. So without further ado here is said video:

Share and enjoy.

UPDATE: looks like the embedded video doesn't work anymore. I suspect that the guys at the Escapist finally realized that everybody was embedding the Zero Punctuations videos into their own sites. So they appear to have disabled the link or something. Anyway here is the actual link to the video.

I'm never gonna do it without the Fez on

To quote Brad, my new desk neighbour at work, "This is hot!"


In case you were wondering WTF while waiting for it to load, its a trailer for the upcoming independent PC Game Fez by Kokoromi that was shown at the 2008 Game Developer's Conference.

Its the long version which builds up to why this is a cool. You're thinking, another silly 2D platform game but its not. Stop reading this and watch the damn video!

It was also just announced that it is the winner of the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival.

Hyper Magazine - Collections Interview

A couple of months ago I told you I was interviewed for the Collections column for Hyper Magazine. Well the issue (#173) is now on the stands.

I don't have a copy yet myself, but a friend at work has a subscription and he brought in his copy for me to read. Erin writes that my career in the game industry has only lasted 15 years so far which isn't true as I started at Unicorn software in 1985 (maybe even in 84) which would make it 23 years. Even if you don't count educational software, bad educational software at that, I started at Westwood in 1988 that would be an even 20.

Anyway I have to get back to work. I do want to point out though that the wireless Internet in the hotel room as gone from poor (losing connection for 30 seconds ever 10 minutes) to almost unusable (2 minute connection followed by... well at last check down since sometime last night.

Edit: fixed the cover picture as I appeared to have linked it from their site instead of uploading it from my hard drive. It had updated to the new issue cover. Whoops.

Interzone in Perth

So here I am in Perth. I started at Interzone today. The details about our current project haven’t been released yet so I can’t give out any more details about it. Connie stayed behind in Brisbane to deal with the majority of packing, the movers and all that. She will be coming over next week on the 11th.

How did my first day go? Well it turns out today is the day that we are moving offices. Not far, just across the parking lot to another building in the same complex. My day was basically getting my computer set up, reading a bunch of design documents and wiki pages, putting up a Watchmen Windows background, having lunch and then helping move a bunch of crap in the burning Australian summer heat. Well at least Perth’s heat isn’t like Brisbane heat with the God awful humidity. I hate humidity. Perth heat is more like Vegas heat, still sucks but at least you don’t have to peal your cloths off with a butter knife at the end of the day.

I finally figured out my iPod radio adapter doesn’t work in the rental car’s cigarette lighter. It was hard to tell at first because after sitting in the hot car for over a year the digital display that shows what station it is broadcasting on has fried. The display is now always blank. So you have to step through the stations slowly while it is hooked up to find the iPod’s broadcast. I finally noticed that the battery on the iPod wasn’t charging. Luckily I also brought the last Harry Potter book on CD so I am finally getting to listen to that while driving around looking for an apartment or house to rent.

Speaking of which, I’m not having much luck with finding a place. It isn’t like the states where you just grab a For Rent magazine and cruise by the various apartment complexes over the weekend. No here you have to contact which ever real estate agent has the listing, find out what day the 15-30 minute window they are showing the apartment is on, fill out an application and then hope the owner picks yours. Every apartment is individually owned by somebody or a investment company. There aren’t any evil giant corporations that own entire apartment complexes. (As we all know all corporations are evil and 9 out of 10 corporate CEO have murdered at least one person. Really, Hollywood wouldn’t lie to us.) Even the brand new giant skyscraper apartment complexes have each unit individually owned. Anyway on top of all that I don’t really know the city so I don’t know where the good and bad neighborhoods are.

Oh well, at least I got the internet connection working in my room.

Entertainment

Thankfully The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Daily Show and The Colbert Report have returned to the air, all be it without writers due to the on going writer’s strike. They are my connection back to the United States while I’m down under. I used to make fun of people who only got their news from late night talk shows and in a way I am one of those people now.

Watching them again got me thinking about other movies and shows I’ve been entertained with lately so I thought I would go on about them. It started out as such a little post but somewhere along the way it ballooned up quite a bit. Sorry.

I am Legend
I saw I am Legend recently, right after having finished listening to the audio book literally as we were driving to the theater. The book and movie are very different. The book by Richard Matheson was written back in 1954; and although it still holds up quite well, you can feel it's age in some parts. It actually takes place in the distant future of 1976’s. (note: I could have sworn that the book said 1996, but the wiki says '76 so I'll just go along with them.)

There was one part in the movie that stuck out as odd, and I mention it because my friend Drew also noticed it. It leads me to believe there was another story element that may have been cut from the film that delved more into the society of the creatures. The main character appears not only miss it but actually goes out of his way to contradict it.

Now I am also okay with the main character just being wrong and missing the point. It has always bugged me when one of the main characters says “according to my theory yadda yadda” and that’s how things all work out in the end. For example Doc Brown in the Back to the Future movies with his theories on time travel and how if they do this series of things the timeline will fix itself. It comes across as too convenient. I would rather the characters build their theories based on evidence presented as the story unfolds, modifying and honing it as it progresses. When the writers give us the clues as the story goes along it helps pull us into the story by letting us figure it all out along with the characters.

Reading the movie’s wiki right now I see the ending was redone and the first ending was related to what I just mentioned. It was also how I was expecting it to go down as I was watching it.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Speaking of one of my favorite story premises, Time Travel, I see that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has finally aired. I’ve had the opening 2-parter episode since it was ‘accidentally’ leaked out onto the internet a few months ago. I’m surprised to see that it is getting mixed reactions from fans. I even read on one forum post with somebody complaining about the good terminator saying the “come with me if you want to live” line. Of course it said that! It HAD to say that and if it hadn’t said it, the fans would have stormed the studio!

Don’t you love the way I said “it” instead of “her”? As if there is anybody who doesn’t know by now that Summer Glau is the Terminator. Look at the ad, Summer's robotic torso... Hmm I wonder if she is the... hey NAKED torso! drool.

Sure the 2-part episode is kind of limited and is basically the same story as Terminator 2; but it does everything it has to. It sets the background, introduces the good & bad terminators and brings them all up to date at the end. Yes it introduces even more questions about how the whole time travel thing works; but like I said I like it when things like that aren’t tied up nicely in some stupid “if my theories are correct” crap. I certainly don’t expect that all to be revealed in the first episode.

If you step back and look at the time travel from the perspective of the first two Terminator movies, it was never really nailed down. Skynet sent the terminator back in time to kill Sara Conner before she can give birth to John who in turn sends someone back to stop the terminator. That man then becomes John’s father. So how did John get born the first time… before people in the future started sending things back through time? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The second Terminator movie just tells us that destiny isn’t pre-written and that the future isn’t set. We also learn that Skynet was built using technology learned from a piece of the terminator defeated in the first movie. So again which came first? Alternate time lines maybe? We don’t know and I like it that the story can keep building on top of that. By the way, the TV series is ignoring the 3rd and the supposedly upcoming 4th movie. Though with the whole changed and/or alternate time line theories, it could easily fit in without destroying anything. Because of the time travel changing events, the things that take place in those movies don’t happen.

Anyway, I personally loved the first episode and can’t wait to see more. They have said that time travel is going to feature heavly in the show and it isn't going to have the 'terminator of the week' plot. I saw an ad for the show on the side of a bus the other day so I know its coming to Australian TV real soon.

Dexter
I finished watching season one of Dexter and am now listening to Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, which is the first novel of at least three that the TV series is based off of. The first season appears to be based on just the first book and so far there are only minor differences.

Dexter is a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Police. He is also a serial killer but he only kills other killers. That being said it still probably isn't what you are expecting. He knows he a bad man and he doesn't try to justify his killing. He also doesn't feel any remorse, he actually doesn't feel much of anything at all. He is completely disconnected and has to fake being normal. Much of the story is told through his internal dialog which gives it a very interesting perspective. There are flash backs to his childhood where his adopted father,Harry - the cop who found Dexter as locked in blood filled shipping container where he mother was murdered, that helps give you much more of a sense of who Dexter is.

It is really very good and I recommend either the TV series or the novel... or be a wild man like me and do both.

Cloverfield
And finally I just got back from seeing Cloverfield. I really like that type of character driven sci-fi story. The entire thing is presented as if it was filmed by the characters using a hand held video camera ala Blair Witch Project. I agree with some critiques that they could have toned down camcorder shake a bit more.

If you haven't seen it yet, I beg you not to let the camera shake thing scare you off because it is solidly on the list of movies that must be seen on the big screen. Also I will give you one warning, it is a movie about the characters told as it happens to them. It is not a movie about the monster. Don't expect an overview of what is going on, how it all started and most importantly how the whole event ended. It starts as a government tape explaining that is a video found at what was once known as Central Park and when the video ends so does the movie.

Aurealis Awards 2007

I have another post I am halfway through writing but haven't got a chance to go back and finish. I thought I had better put this out before it isn't relevant anymore. As you may remember I was a judge for this year's awards. If you arn't doing anything this Australia day and happen to be in Brisbane...

Get dressed up to the nines to celebrate the nation’s best science fiction, fantasy and horror of 2007 with us this Australia day weekend!

This lively event will be teeming with all your favourite authors, not to mention publishers, literary agents and readers. Rub shoulders with our hosts, Kim Wilkins and Sean Williams.

All are welcome at this celebration of Australian achievement in speculative fiction, brought to you by Fantastic Queensland.

Tickets include post-ceremony cocktail function where drinks and food will be served.

6:00pm for 6:30pm, Saturday 26 January 2008 at The Judith Wright Centre Of Contemporary Arts,420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Queensland

All tickets only $33
Online:
www.jwcoca.qld.gov.au

In Person at:
Judith Wright Centre Box Office, 3872-9000

Pulp Fiction Bookshop, Brisbane, 3236-2750

For information about the awards, go to www.aurealisawards.com