Can We Fix it? No We're Fucked!

So now that the general election campaign has finally started I’ve had a hard time following the news. The Democratic race has mentally drained me and probably a lot of voters who had to put up with Hillary and Obama beating each other’s heads in. I have to say it is pretty amazing that this happened though considering George Bush Jr. got reelected I guess anything is possible in politics. Though I said the first time I ever saw Barrack Obama that he would one day be the President of the United States, I was pretty resigned to believing that Hillary would eventually come out on top. I guess I shouldn’t get into trying to predict political stuff since I’m usually wrong, not that anybody in the media knows what they’re doing anyway. The polls, the big impressive charts and graphs, it’s all BS.

Anyway here we are, general election woo, the Democrats can work together now right? Right?! Unfortunately one of my political predictions did come true, at least partially. The rift in the Democratic Party that still exists is unacceptable. The tooth-and-nail race that the candidates ran has left grudges in its place, some of which with unimaginable consequences. Hillary Democrats swearing their allegiance to John McCain.

It’s one thing for them to “refuse to vote” due to the loss of their matriarch but it’s another thing to vote for the Republican candidate. And it’s not that they’re doing it because they think he’ll be a better president but rather just to spite Obama for having the audacity to beat Hillary in the primaries.

I know, I know, things like Florida (I fucking hate Florida, they mess up every election they touch. If it were up to me the entire state would be disenfranchised permanently. Sorry Floridians, no offense. Please teach your government how to run an election.) and Michigan delegate woes were a little underhanded though they’re lucky they got counted at all. I also know that I gave McCain a bit of a thumbs up in the past if only because he was better than the other candidates offered by the Republican party. However, since becoming the presumptive nominee, the once independent-style McCain seems to have fallen in line with his party as if they held a gun to his head and told him that if he didn’t act like Bush they’d pull the trigger.

Now let me get this clear right now, I think McCain is smarter than Bush, I think he’s a better man than Bush. I don’t think, however, that McCain’s policy of staying Bush’s course if he gets elected is the right direction for the United States. I also fail to understand how Hillary supporters can look at McCain, look at Obama, and decide that McCain better represents their interests when McCain’s stance on the issues couldn’t be further away from Hillary’s. Let’s not forget than in early Republican debates, McCain was right there with everyone else bashing who they thought they’d be running against, Hillary Clinton, with comments that bordered on school yard bullying and sexism. And this is the man they’d rather vote for than the Democrat whose stances are in all honesty nearly identical to Clinton’s? What's worse is most of Hillary's die-hard supporters are middle class voters who are truly struggling in the current state of the economy yet now they're going to vote for somebody whose view on the economy is to keep it running the same way it has been in the past eight years and expect it to get better? I don't want to make this an issue of race or anything but seriously, sometimes I wonder.

It leads me to only one conclusion. It’s a popularity contest, it’s like “reality TV” more than it is a government election. People weren’t going to vote for Hillary Clinton because they liked what she stood for, they were going to vote for her because they just happened to like her. And just like the immature kids these voters are they’re going to jump ship because I guess they never really gave a damn about what the Democratic Party is trying to accomplish anyway. If they’d rather have a Bush sequel then they can bring it on themselves. I just want to make this plea to these people, if any of them for some strange reason happens upon my blog. Just DON’T VOTE. If you feel neither of the candidates represent you, you have the right and the privilege to not vote. If you’re upset with the party, it doesn’t mean you should support someone whose views are the polar opposite to your own instead just because your candidate lost. Hillary isn’t supporting Barrack Obama because somebody is making her, she’s doing it because it’s what all Democrats should do and she wants her supporters to do the same and even that hasn’t fazed some of them.

I know most of those Democratic voters are in the minority, or at least I hope they are. Though I’ve been a supporter of Barrack Obama from the beginning I truly expected him to lose and was prepared to offer my full support for Hillary Clinton. This needs to be the year that Democrats can finally come together to try and do something about the current state of our nation. Somebody needs to restore the world’s faith in the United States and retune a failing economy. If you think John McCain is the man to do that then I’m fine with your decision and your opinions. If you think Hillary Clinton was that person and you’re voting for McCain out of spite, then you seriously need to rethink your action before the ballot is cast.

Political Highlander?

I'm not sure if Time was aware of the hilarious pun they were making with this cover. It sums up the state of the Democratic Party pretty nicely though.

I wonder... which one is MacLeod and which one is the Kurgan?

Movie Review: Iron Man

It's been a very mecha-ish last couple of weeks for me. Today it's Iron Man which I saw last Saturday in a pretty classy theater I might add. As I said before in a much earlier blog post about the release of the Iron Man trailer I have been waiting for this movie since I was a child. Iron Man is my favorite super hero and it's been a torturous time waiting for him to get his turn on the big silver screen. The wait is finally over, so did the movie disappoint?

Two words: HELL NO!

I have to say there have been a lot of bad comic book movies. Some are good movies but poor adaptations and others are good adaptations but poor movies. Iron Man somehow manages to be both. Iron Man is the first effort by the brand new Marvel Studios and they were of course very respectful of the source material, something I was really afraid that they wouldn't be. Iron Man's origins have been messed with a lot over the past but the movie stays very close to Stan Lee's original origin except it moves it from the Vietnam War to a more contemporary Afghanistan location in order to avoid making the film a period piece.
In any case everybody who knows Iron Man knows what happens at the beginning. Billionaire industrialist and weapons designer Anthony or rather Tony Stark takes a little trip to a war zone to show off his newest weapons. To make a long story short he's wounded with shrapnel to the chest, has his life saved by a fellow man of science named Yinsen who helps construct an electromagnet that keeps the shrapnel from digging deeper into Tony's wounded heart, and Stark builds a big bad suit of powered armor that he uses to make his escape.
The movie focuses on business rival, in this case business parter, Obidiah Stane as the villain. When Tony returns from the middle east after finding out that people have been using his own weapons against the US army he's ticked and decides to take matters into his own hands. He announces that he's done building weapons and his company takes a sharp drop in the stock market, something Stane doesn't like very much. Tony builds a new and much more advanced suit of armor and returns to the middle east to get rid of the weapons he created while Stane gets his hands on the prototype Iron Man designs. I don't want to say much more since I've spoiled enough already. Go out and see the movie for yourself.Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect Iron Man as he plays the most amazing lovable asshole any human being could create. The man simply is Tony Stark and he's gone through similar trials and tribulations in his real life as Stark did in his comic book one. His chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is ripped almost exactly as it should be from the comic book. Stane could've used a little more developing but as it is Jeff Bridges plays an excellent manipulative and bad ass villain.
Some people complain that there isn't enough action but the superb story telling and comedic elements make up for it. I'm inclined to agree but the action that is there is incredible. The suits look real and almost as if they stepped down from the comic pages and onto the screen. The action is easy to follow and thrilling to watch as well. I for one am glad that the movie isn't a CGI fest. There's a lot of special effects that aren't CGI and they also look fantastic and really make the movie feel that much more real.The actors have all signed on for three films (The next one scheduled for 2010) and with hints and promises of the Mandarin and War Machine you better believe I'm looking forward to them. If they're any bit as good as this first effort then look out for the next few movies from Marvel Studios as well including a new Hulk, Captain America, Thor and of course when they all join together in The Avengers.

10 out of 10: If you ever liked a single comic book movie go see this one now. I may be biased a little though, just a little.

Giant Robot Review: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

As a fan of anime mecha I have of course known of 2007's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TTGL from now on to save on typing) for some time now. It's been getting immensely popular, not just among fellow mecha fans but surprisingly among general anime fans. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I don't know. Mecha anime usually has its strict niche audience but TTGL has managed to transcend that subset of anime geeks.

I shouldn't be that surprised, as Gainax is responsible for other popular mecha titles like Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion which have also made a big impact on anime, especially Evangelion which is perhaps one of the most popular and influential anime series in existence (even though I personally kind of hate it).

TTGL is set in the far future where humans are forced to live under ground. We don't know why right away and I don't want to give much away since there's still quite a few people who haven't seen the series yet and are waiting for the soon to be released DVDs. At the beginning we follow around Simon the digger, a young boy who... well... digs. He digs to help expand his village and does so dutifully, believing that digging is the only thing he's good at. Then there's his "big bro" Kamina with crazy sunglasses that end up becoming the icon of the series, and a hot blooded attitude that parodies/pays homage to super robot heroes of the old days. Kamina's dream is to break through the ceiling of their cave dwelling and reach the surface, something to pair achieve at the end of the episode after being introduced to robots designed around giant heads called Ganmen (or Gunmen I'm not sure what the proper romanization is yet).

The story that follows is filled with great super robot action, entertaining commedy, and heart wrenching drama. It takes the formula of the common super robot show, twists it to suit its needs, and creates an excellent show. The problem with a lot of super robot shows is they're really over the top, but their stories and characters leave something to be desired. There's always a sense of cliche especially in the OVAs based on older shows. This isn't always a bad thing, and there's a lot of purposely inserted cliches in TTGL, but they've managed to make a show that's both absolutely absurd with lovable characters and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat at the end of each episode.

The first half of the show progresses predictably where an enemy shows up, the heroes scream really loud and through courage and hot blood the enemies are defeated. You never really see them as evil though early on they seem to fight for no good reason like most super robot bad-guys you learn at the epic climax of the show's first half that there was some method to their madness. The second half of the series takes a dramatic left turn and everything changes. In a way the show's plot covers a lot of ground in terms of anime mecha history, paying homage to a lot of old sources and deriving its story and design from them while somehow being fresh and original. Everything in the show ties together and even when things get really ridiculous or come out of nowhere there's usually a reason or the event was somehow foreshadowed.

That's enough about the story though as I really don't want to say much. The show's animation is superb, done sort of in the same style as Gainax's popular show FLCL while at the same time also resembling old style super robot anime. The result is a very kinetic show, especially the action which is frantic, breathtaking, and downright insane. It's full of eye candy for mechaheads and general anime fans alike.

There's really not much else I can say about this show other than kick reason to the curb and pierce the heavens! Go and watch it right now, you're in for a ride.

10 out of 10

DS Game Review: Front Mission

Although I got the game Front Mission months ago I finally got around to finally beating it mainly because I've been on one of my giant robot kicks again. I've known about Front Mission for a long time, but it's a series that's remained in Japan for the most part except for the PlayStation installment Front Mission 3 and the PS2 sequel Front Mission 4. I've played neither of those games though I'm no stranger to Japanese turned based strategy games/Turn based RPGs.

I found the original Front Mission for DS surreptitiously as I didn't even know it existed and I wasn't aware at first it was an enhanced port of the original Super Famicom game that for whatever reason (Probably Squaresoft thinking it too hard/complicated for their Western audience, something they did a lot of back then.) Knowing the name and the reputation it has among fans of mecha like myself I bought it for a bargain price that I still don't understand since everywhere I see it today is much more expensive.

In any case let's get to the actual game. Front Mission is a strategy role-playing game, with an emphasis on the strategy part. It reminds me a lot of Battletech in both the oddly Western robot designs and the whole squad based combat angle that the game takes. There are two scenarios you can play in, the beginner's campaign which is the original campaign from the Super Famicom original and the more advanced campaign made specifically for the remake so it's a little shorter. Both tell the same story from different sides of a war that's being fought on a newly formed island in the Pacific in the near future. The story is simple, but full of interesting plot twists as you uncover a military conspiracy. The same events happen in both campaigns, the second campaign referencing the first quite a few times, even having cameos from some of your characters in the first game. It was a neat addition, and I'm sure the Japanese kids who were addicted to this game when it was originally released really got a kick out of it. I did and I've only known the characters for a few months now.
Besides the leveling up of characters and learning skills aspect the game-play is really bent more towards the strategy aspect. You get over a dozen troops and you can literally spend hours tweaking and customizing your robots or "Wanzers" as Front Mission calls them. Wanzer is short for "Wandrung Panzer" which means "Walking Tank." You can choose which arms, legs, body, a variety of hand held and shoulder mounted weapons, and an energy boosting backpack that makes up your Wanzer. The customization is by far the deepest element of the game, though the combat isn't a walk in the park.

Basically your Wanzers are situated on a pseudo-3D isometric scene separated into a grid. The environments are pretty well drawn, upgraded from the Super Famicom version, and they range from all types of scenes from urban fighting to forests, mountains, deserts, etc. You move your Wanzers around on this grid, and a supply truck that can repair and reload if you have one, and engage the enemy from long, medium, and short ranges. The long range weapons like missiles and medium range weapons like bazookas are essential to success because an enemy can't counter attack when you're attacking them from a distance. The short range weapons like other guns and melee attacks however require you to get up close and personal and unless you destroy the weapon they're attacking with or stun them they'll most likely counter attack you. If you try to do a melee attack and the enemy has a gun however, he'll get the first shot. The damage is randomized and you can destroy an arm, legs, or torso, the latter causing the entire enemy to blow to smithereens if you destroy it. Later in the game you do get the skills to target certain parts and it helps immensely.
When you attack somebody the view changes, and you get to see your little customized robot kick ass in a nicely animated and more detailed little scene. Every part has its own sprite which makes the customization even more interesting. My only complaint about combat is just how broken long range attacks are. You're limited on missile ammo but they're usually rather powerful and they don't require you to put your units in danger. There's also items like chaff that throw off missiles but for the most part missiles are insane and I've won entire missions with long range barrages alone. They don't completely break the game though, and I really enjoyed the simple combat as well as buying new weapons to see what they do.

I also need to stress the length of this game. If you go through both campaigns you're looking at easily over 60+ hours of game-play especially if you're obsessive compulsive about customizing your Wanzers like I was. This game is best in small doses though, I really don't recommend anybody sit down and go through several missions at once because you really need a break after some intense tinkering with parts and fighting for your life in a mission only to be presented with a whole new collection of parts.

I can't really recommend this game to everyone because you need to devote a lot of time and effort into it to really get the most out of it. If you do give it a chance though you're in for a lot of the old Squaresoft magic with an intelligent story, inexplicably fun game-play, and lots and lots of robots beating the crap out of each other. I don't know why Squaresoft didn't release this on the Super Nintendo but I think it would have been a classic in the West if they had. As it stands now the game is a bit dated, but that shouldn't be a problem for anyone who enjoys old-school graphical style as it's certainly not ugly just dated compared to what the DS is capable of. There are some sweet CGI cut-scenes in the second campaign at the very least. It's a game that I feel like I missed out on that I'm glad the Nintendo DS let me experience.

8 out of 10

Getting my Emo Ducks in a Row

It's been a while since I posted anything mainly because life has been such a shitstorm that I haven't had an opportunity to worry about anything enough to post. Obama is still black, Hillary is still ugly, John McCain will eat your babies, none of that has changed really so who cares.

This past week especially has conspired to crush my will and turn me into a depressed lump who has to complain about his problems to make-believe people on the Internet. I'm still on a failing path to not finding an internship and time is running out. I'm barely staying alive in Spanish class and to make matters worse I lost my actually lost my Spanish book so I can't even study for a quiz tomorrow. To make money worse I got a $42.50 fine for an accidental traffic violation from a few weeks ago, hooray. I failed one stinking part of my comprehensive exam which I'll have to probably retake. With my personal life my grandfather keeps whining about dying and my cousin might have cancer and everybody else in the family has some kind of God damned ailment to worry about including myself.

It's times like this I withdraw into myself. I never solve my problems because I just sit back and let them consume me. I try not to complain about anything in my life, except on the Internet where I can do so without fear of some made up repercussions and as such here I am right now. I start to question whether I belong here in college, if I wasted time and money and I disappointed my family and myself. I'm scared to death of failure that seems like a distinct possibility at this late in the game. The university itself doesn't make it any easier considering they want you to stay here your entire life and keep injecting them with money.

My professional writing group internship meeting today was probably the last straw. People admitted to not having an internship yet, but when it was asked who didn't have any idea at all what they were doing I was the only one left raising my hand. I was pretty visually shaken after than and sat there for a while until just about everybody left. One of my best professors sat down to talk to me and offer me help but I was too out of it to really say much at that point. I went to a bathroom stall and just cried for the next ten minutes, feeling like I was having a psychotic break. I try to act tough both online and in real life, but I'm a weak person with a weak will who's easily beaten. Stress always wins which is probably why I have a stress related illness which is the only thing that isn't helping to screw with my psyche right now thankfully.

I feel lost already, thrown to the dogs and I'm still in school with people who can help me but I'm afraid to ask for the help because I either don't know how to or don't know how to be helped as if it will cheapen me somehow. I don't really know what I'm even talking about right now to be honest. For at least over a month now I've been in a period of self-loathing and self-depreciation that can't be healthy yet I'm slipping into it more and more deeply. The problem is the more I get myself down the less likely I am to do something about it, the more likely I am to sit here and feel bad about myself.

I've always followed the credo that there's always somebody out there that has it worse, that really has a reason to be upset, but that's bullshit. As a human being it's my right to be upset. If I can't handle this nonsense what am I going to do once I'm out of the safety net of the education system? What will I do when I'm buried in debt trying to find a stable job in an economy that's slipping deeper and deeper into a recession while I detach myself further and further from reality. Maybe it's because I grew up in an era of unparalleled hope and optimism only to live in an era of depression and pessimism as an adult that I'm not well suited to handle the real world and if that's the case why should I bother trying if I'm not going to be happy?

In any case I'm sorry to be an emo duck, filling the tubes with e-drama as if there isn't enough of that already. If this all manages to blow over somehow I'll continue posting regularly until my next awkward emotional phase. If not then don't expect very many posts from now on. Thank you for being a tool of catharsis mien blog.

Scientology, the Internet, and You

I guess I've been quiet on this topic for too long now though I feel like a slowpoke for commenting on it now. If you've been reading the blog out there in cyberspace somewhere you probably already know I'm a pretty outspoken person when it comes to scams and religious nonsense and general foolishness like conspiracies and "holier-than-thou" attitudes. As such, I feel I need to write something about the current events spawned by the Internet.

Scientology has been getting a lot of press lately, especially because people love to watch Tom Cruise do stupid things. Scientology has also given us some laughs in the past like the absolutely attrocious John Travolta movie Battlefield Earth. Not everything about it is a laughing matter however. Scientology has been blamed for luring people into their group and slowly indoctrinating them, forcing them to pay more and more money to learn the secrets of the "religion" which gets more and more absurd and involves space aliens and I'll stop now because it's all been said before. In any case if you try to leave or criticize Scientology you usually find yourself on the receiving end of legal action and harassment. Their policies which include not wanting their followers to medicate themselves and their absolute hatred of psychology (they base most of these beliefs off of L.Ron Hubbard's Dianetics) has at the very least caused one death, a woman by the name of Lisa McPherson. In any case you can do your own research and make your own conclusions on what some call a religion, others call a cult, and I call a corporate enterprise.

A few weeks ago a Scientology recruitment video staring Tom Cruise was leaked onto the Internet where it was promptly made fun of. Scientology sprung into action to have this video removed and in most cases they succeeded though Gawker.com saw the video as newsworthy and decided not to remove it even after threats of legal action. This didn't really matter anyway because the video had already made its rounds and everyone saw it and parodies even made it to late night television shows. The attempt to suppress/censor the Internet however caught the attention of some people. These people are known as "Anonymous."

If you know who Anonymous is, then you have one of a few reactions to them. You're one of them, you're apathetic towards their acts, or you absolutely hate them. If you don't know who Anonymous is let me just simplify it by saying they're a loose group of people (thousands of people) from various websites who troll/grief the internet looking for amusement from it. Sometimes this comes in the form of hacking, sometimes they're more creative and prankster-like. A few of Anonymous's acts have spilled over into the real world and they've even pranked a few celebrity's like Tom Green and bankrupted the former internet radio show host and white supremacist, Hal Turner. Sometimes they have a good reason for attacking people, but most of the time that reason is because doing so will be funny. They can get away with whatever the hell they want on the Internet because they have their anonymity and there's so many of them and they know it. This makes the best way of fighting them not to fight them. Of course Anonymous is mostly comprised of college age computer geeks but they've got people all over the world of just about every race, gender, and age.

And so began Anonymous's grudge against Scientology. The opening shot was a DDOS (denial of service) attack against Scientology's website which managed to take it off line. That wasn't enough for Anonymous however and something really interesting happened. On February 10th Anonymous took to the streets in the real world, protesting the church of Scientology world-wide, donning V for Vendetta style Guy Fawkes masks in most locations to protect their anonymity while speaking out against Scientology. The crazy group of Internet griefers had manifested themselves in the real world. In only two weeks the power of Internet communication and organization had launched a worldwide campaign. This has now become a real war. Anonymous peacefully attacked every corrupt facet of the Church of Scientology all because Scientology couldn't keep Tom Cruise's giant mouth shut. The protests were peaceful and a complete success. The old-school protesters were amazed at this new army's formation over night. I have to admit, it was nice to see people in my generation stand up for something even if there are better things to protest than Scientology.

Unfortunately Anonymous is known to get bored, that is unless Scientology continues to provoke them and thus continues to make Anonymous laugh. For the first time in Scientology's history they had nothing to litigate, nothing they could counter-attack. I don't know what repercussions all of this will have, as Internet culture is a strange thing to outsiders and seeing it appear outside the Internet is nothing short of a coming cultural revolution. The Internet is changing society in the same way that television changed it before that, and radio before that. All I know is that I'll be eagerly watching.

Fight Anonymous, for everlasting peace!