For The Empire!

I will confess to a strange, sadistic fascination with crushing Soviet and Allied forces alike using the Empire of the Rising Sun. I haven't had this much laughs and fun out of an RTS in a long, long while. I can't believe it took me this long to even acquire this game.

I've always been a moderate Red Alert fan. The series is like a sci-fi B-movie spliced with a mockumentary of World War II, with a healthy splash of the Cold War thrown in. The whole thing is so over-the-top and full of stereotypes and ridiculous concepts that I can't help but find it unspeakably enjoyable. Even if the Allies win every single time. Damn Allies.

The Allies are still the most effective overall. The Soviets are still undisputed masters of the ground and pound method of offense. And the new faction, the Empire of the Rising Sun? Well, they certainly need far more micromanagement than the other factions to be put to use effectively. However, once you've gotten the hang of that down, it is a relatively easy path to victory. Expensive, but easy.

The Allies are still the dullest, most unexciting of the factions. Even with every unit having some form of hard counter to it, they're still remarkably dull to use. It's too easy to win as them. Besides, I've never liked the Allies.

The Soviets are fun to play, and their best tactics are exactly the sort of thing I'd do when I'm in no mood to think of more complicated tactics. They're very effective with the right tactics, and ridiculously fun to play no matter what.

The Empire, though, is my clear favorite. There's something very satisfying about using them, particularly their more advanced units. I particularly favor using Rocket Angels with a force of Strikers or Tsunami Tanks as back-up. Great way to wipe out an entire base if done right.

Next step: acquire the expansion, largely for the Yuriko Omega campaign and the new units.

He's Bad.

One might wonder why I am doing this. There are, for me, certainly far more notable recent deaths. Farah Fawcett, for one, since I grew up watching Charlie's Angels re-runs. One cannot deny I enjoyed David Carradine's role in the Kung Fu series (both of them), even if it seemed awkward to watch him play a master of Chinese martial arts. Then there's Ed McMahon, who served as the one celebrity I will always remember as one of the most thoroughly entertaining people I've ever seen. I am also late for an obituary, which this most certainly is not.

First, let me make one thing perfectly, crystal clear: I am not a Michael Jackson fan. I listen to a few of his songs, the ones that I personally enjoy, but I am by no means a fan. I enjoy songs regardless of artist, and the so-called King of Pop definitely had some good ones.

With that in mind, I do know how to give credit where credit is due, and it is certainly due here. Wacko Jacko managed, before turning his personal life and his sanity into a farce worthy of the finest comedians of all time, to make some very good songs. In many ways, he had a couple of good ones even after acting like a crazed lunatic.

Some have great messages, others have great beats, but out of all his music, I would have to say only one is my personal choice. I think that, for anyone that likes his brand of music, there is at least one song that resonates in them. The same holds true for me. One song of his does resonate with me more than the rest. Not because it has a deeper meaning, not because it has better quality composition, but simply because I enjoy the song more.

Bad

So here is a toast to all those entertainers who died as of late. To David Carradine. To Farah Fawcett. To Ed McMahon. And yes, to Michael Jackson. I may not be a devoted fan of any of you, but if nothing else, you have my respect for your accomplishments.

Requiem et Pace.

The Last Airbender

Trailer Link
The director is M. Night Shabalabadingdong. The ethnicities of the cast are all wrong. Aang has been cured of his ADHD. This adaptation will suck, like all movies done by this director.

Mark my words: this movie will suck.

With Honors

Most often, I watch a movie and like it for a bit, then promptly forget about it. A lot of movies tend to be like this for me, no matter how much money they make in the box office or how highly the critics recommend it. There are, it would seem, a few movies that manage to stick in my mind, the ones that I'd not only watch, but obtain a permanent copy of in case I feel like watching it again. One such movie is With Honors.

It is, at the core, a simple movie about a college student and the homeless man who holds his thesis hostage. It is also a bit of an education on some of the facts of life that academic studies don't really mention. The movie has touches of comedy and touches of drama, and blends it all into a supple mix of a film. It is the kind of movie that you will remember because it has this resonance about it, something that strikes a chord in me.

This is a movie I'll count as one of the rare films I want to have close at hand, and can stand to re-watch without losing even the slightest bit of enjoyment. It is also oddly inspiring, and watching this and Find Forrester can often give me that little bit of mental push I need to keep at writing.

Now I leave with a quote from the movie, which itself is a quote of the great Walt Whitman:
"To drive free, to love free, to court destruction with taunts, to feed the remainder of life with one hour of fullness and freedom - one brief hour of madness and joy."

How Nostalgic

I've noticed something.

For several weeks now, I've been torrenting a lot of old TV shows and cartoons. Stuff I grew up with, stuff that probably had a hand in shaping my tastes and preferences in entertainment. I occasionally think I had a fairly typical childhood in most respects, but I firmly believe the sorts of things that I watched as a kid were far from typical.

Take, for example, Beverly Hills 90210. As weird as countless people seem to think it is, I grew up watching that show. I love that show, actually. It is one of those things that really helped me figure quite a few things out, not to mention served as a very strange sort of adviser in many areas.

Watching it again has brought back quite a few pleasant memories. Then again, I think anyone that re-watches something they grew up with would feel good about it. Interestingly, the show is still as interesting for me now as it was for me back then, despite some of the episodes falling a little flat in terms of their premise. Overall, it still is a very good show, and one that helps me sort out my thoughts on various matters.

Perhaps strangely, I think I can attribute a lot of my personality to the show. Every so often, I see a bit of my own personality being reflected in some of the characters. I can't quite tell if this is because I picked up those traits from the show, or if the show just does this coincidentally. I am oddly certain a lot of my views and perceptions on relationships -- and a lot of the advice I dole out when asked about such -- tends to not come from 90210, though I have yet to identify the source.

Then again, it isn't just the old 90210 that I'm looking into. I've found myself grabbing copies of the original seasons of Transformers, from before the animated movie (and certainly before the atrocity that is the Michael Bay version), G.I. Joe (in preparation for the coming movie, which looks to be awesome), and possibly even the animated Batman cartoon.

I'm slightly tempted to try and find a copy of the Adam West Batman TV show, but something tells me I'm better off not revisiting that part of my childhood.

I blame my Internet connection.

And my sanctimonious son of a bitch boss, who still holds to the non-sensical policy of keeping our USB ports non-functional. The dimwit.

Cherry Blossoms

Despite the prolonged hiatus from writing and the inevitable death of my creative ability due to the fact that my job sucks, I think its about time I got back into the grand old game. For far too long, I've let my focus on getting work quotas done get in the way of what writer is really supposed to be doing.

I have an outline ready, and I know I can flesh it out. Time to get back into the game, time to do some real writing, and not the garbage I have to "write" for work. I'm a writer, so I need to actually do some writing again, right? Besides, I kind of miss the tingling mental sensation of fleshing out a scene that previously only existed in my mind.

With any luck, "Cherry Blossoms" will just be the tip of the iceberg and I can use it as a stepping stone to writing more stories. I've abandoned the game long enough.