All I can say about this picture is...
The colorer at Marvel either saw the original Star Wars movie on a lot of drugs, or he was massivly colorblind ;)
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
The Island's not done with us...
Tom, in your post to tawm.net the other day, you say you saw a coincidental LOST sign in a completely different serializaiton that you enjoy. Well, me too!
I'd just like to point out that my sighting is not as creepy as it looks. It's from a manga about Japanese drifters racing their cars around Japan. Alas, all the cool car artwork is spoiled every twenty chapters by a chapter like this, where the drivers take a quick break, and generally spend their free time complaining that they're not racing.
Both drivers here drive awesome turbo'd RX-7 FD's. Not that you care. Or know what that is.
I'd just like to point out that my sighting is not as creepy as it looks. It's from a manga about Japanese drifters racing their cars around Japan. Alas, all the cool car artwork is spoiled every twenty chapters by a chapter like this, where the drivers take a quick break, and generally spend their free time complaining that they're not racing.
Both drivers here drive awesome turbo'd RX-7 FD's. Not that you care. Or know what that is.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Opening Pandora's box... there's a PS2 game inside
So now that more than 6 years have passed since the legendary game GT4 has come out, and every fan that had once worshipped its glorious light and realistic gameplay has now moved onto next-gen consol racing simulators (right now Forza III has the spotlight, but GT5 is due out in time for the Holiday season this year, so let's brace ourselves for that impact!), I believe it is time for me to start playing it.
At first glance, before any actual gameplay was performed, I was underimpressed. Compared to the only other game I have that is comparable (Forza 2, Xbox 360), GT4 had a hard-to-navigate menu screen. Races are jumbled up all over the screen in a pattern resembling the fallout pattern of a shotgun blast, with car dealerships mixed in between race leagues, country-specific and terrain-specific maps, and tuning shops. I can't complain about the graphics, because for a PS2, I know they are phenominally good. But you can't escape the fact that the shadows are much too dark, the cars are blurrily rendered, and it is impossible to tell whether the car in from of you has its brake lights on unless you have a properly large tv. Also, the accelerator and brake buttons (X and [], respectively) are pressure-sensitive, to properly simulate pedal-pressing. Granted, the true fans will buy the full-sized cockpit/wheel/shifter/pedals set and never worry about the microscopic precision required to press the accelerator button on a controller only 35% down as opposed to 40%. And because of what this game is about, that can make things rather difficult.
As opposed to other games, the GT series encourages the players to pass lisence tests, which show you just how bad of a driver you really are. Even just getting a clean start off a line, or navigating a low-speed corner are small challenges they give you in order to start your racing education. This game is all about technical racing: hitting apexes, memorizing blind turns, techniques for driving on low grip surfaces, weight shifting through braking, ect, that even before you get to the actual tuning of the cars, it will have driven anyone that came into the game half-assed away.
Honestly, I've only had the game for 3 days. I haven't tuned any of my cars yet (I only have 5 so far), so I'm going to avoid talking about that until I have tried it. But the amount of cars in this game is staggering: I belive in the version I bought there are 721 cars to purchase. Oh, and because GT couldn't buy rights to put their cars in this game, it has NO Porsches. Oh, or Lamborghinis. Or Ferraris. I seem to recall that in Forza 2, a game which only had ~400 cars, maybe 20-25% of them were of those three makes. Oh well; it makes it that much more staggering to consider just how many different kinds of cars there are in here. Well, as long as you don't mind that over 100 of them are Nissans. Or that out of those Nissans, half of them are Skylines.
I'm going to end this review short, seeing as I've barely played the game enough to constitute a 1-paragraph review, but I just need to mention 1 thing. 24-hour races. Races. That you play. for 24 hours at a time. I know this is an extreme thing that really does exist in the world of racing, but why would you put that in here?!? And not just one! There are three 24-hour races in the game. And one of them is set at the 'Ring. What can people possibly be thinking when they put this in a game? More on GT4 later
At first glance, before any actual gameplay was performed, I was underimpressed. Compared to the only other game I have that is comparable (Forza 2, Xbox 360), GT4 had a hard-to-navigate menu screen. Races are jumbled up all over the screen in a pattern resembling the fallout pattern of a shotgun blast, with car dealerships mixed in between race leagues, country-specific and terrain-specific maps, and tuning shops. I can't complain about the graphics, because for a PS2, I know they are phenominally good. But you can't escape the fact that the shadows are much too dark, the cars are blurrily rendered, and it is impossible to tell whether the car in from of you has its brake lights on unless you have a properly large tv. Also, the accelerator and brake buttons (X and [], respectively) are pressure-sensitive, to properly simulate pedal-pressing. Granted, the true fans will buy the full-sized cockpit/wheel/shifter/pedals set and never worry about the microscopic precision required to press the accelerator button on a controller only 35% down as opposed to 40%. And because of what this game is about, that can make things rather difficult.
As opposed to other games, the GT series encourages the players to pass lisence tests, which show you just how bad of a driver you really are. Even just getting a clean start off a line, or navigating a low-speed corner are small challenges they give you in order to start your racing education. This game is all about technical racing: hitting apexes, memorizing blind turns, techniques for driving on low grip surfaces, weight shifting through braking, ect, that even before you get to the actual tuning of the cars, it will have driven anyone that came into the game half-assed away.
Honestly, I've only had the game for 3 days. I haven't tuned any of my cars yet (I only have 5 so far), so I'm going to avoid talking about that until I have tried it. But the amount of cars in this game is staggering: I belive in the version I bought there are 721 cars to purchase. Oh, and because GT couldn't buy rights to put their cars in this game, it has NO Porsches. Oh, or Lamborghinis. Or Ferraris. I seem to recall that in Forza 2, a game which only had ~400 cars, maybe 20-25% of them were of those three makes. Oh well; it makes it that much more staggering to consider just how many different kinds of cars there are in here. Well, as long as you don't mind that over 100 of them are Nissans. Or that out of those Nissans, half of them are Skylines.
I'm going to end this review short, seeing as I've barely played the game enough to constitute a 1-paragraph review, but I just need to mention 1 thing. 24-hour races. Races. That you play. for 24 hours at a time. I know this is an extreme thing that really does exist in the world of racing, but why would you put that in here?!? And not just one! There are three 24-hour races in the game. And one of them is set at the 'Ring. What can people possibly be thinking when they put this in a game? More on GT4 later
Monday, May 24, 2010
They're all vampires, anyway
I was walking by this poster displaying many faces of various individuals, and I stopped to get a closer look. It turns out it was a Red Cross advertisment to promote blood donations. The caption above all the faces was "what do all these people have in common?" and below it read "their lives were all saved by people they will never meet." At first, I just took it at face value, but reading it again, it does sound kind of ominous for the donors... are they dead? Red Cross seems pretty sure that they will never get to meet the donors who saved them (yes, on the poster the word never was in italics). Does the Red Cross simply detain them or deport them to places they willbe unable to meet the donees? Or is it just a very extensive monitoring program, like teams of Red Cross vans that follow blood donors and if they get too close to a chance 'meeting' with a person they saved, they quickly intervene? So many unanswered questions from this seemingly simple poster... I guess the only way I'll figure them out is if I donate blood, then try to track down who my blood goes to, and then try and meet them.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
More Reliable than Tom Petty?
Tenacious D ain't got nothin on Relient K. The Christian-rock band with a purposely misspelled name to avoid copyright infringment has only been around for 12 years or so, but when I first heard about them a few months ago, I felt like I had completely missed the party. Everyone seemed put off by their religious spin on what I can generally describe as some of the most clever music I have heard in a really long time. Have you heard of them? You probably have, since I seem to be the only one that hasn't.
Right, but this post isn't one to praise their creativity, it's more to defend the one part of their music that might be a little bit too "relieble." I'm talking, of course, about the 4-chord structure the band adheres to more tightly than that wierd vegan-grain thai-fry my roomate cooks sticks to the dirty dishes. E, and the open variants of A, B, and C# are the culprits, and between the multiple permutations of this group and moving a capo around the neck of the guitar, it's present in ALL of the acoustic songs and many of the lesser-played ones. It's not enough to label them as a one-trick pony though (cue song, May the horse be with you), because it's not what they're displaying in the song. It's more like the foundation, and it's understandable that you'd reuse a fantastic foundation because hey, it worked last time, and no one sees the foundation of a building except an appraiser anyway!
Keeping up with this metaphor, the walls of the house are the lyrics, clever and easy to sing along to. A catchy drum beat is the attractive garden in the front and the electric guitars are the pleasent neighbors. I suppose the harmonies could be less common, but that is certainly a personal preference. Let's just say it's a unique lawn ornament that some people think is guady.
If you've never heard RK, then let me suggest a few songs: they're a really wide variety of styles, so listen to more than one if you don't like the first one! I tried to avoid the ones that everyone knows (from the radio) so that you could have a fresh taste.
Recommended K:
Curl Up and Die
Here I Go
Sadie Hawkins Dance
Must Have Done Something Right
Right, but this post isn't one to praise their creativity, it's more to defend the one part of their music that might be a little bit too "relieble." I'm talking, of course, about the 4-chord structure the band adheres to more tightly than that wierd vegan-grain thai-fry my roomate cooks sticks to the dirty dishes. E, and the open variants of A, B, and C# are the culprits, and between the multiple permutations of this group and moving a capo around the neck of the guitar, it's present in ALL of the acoustic songs and many of the lesser-played ones. It's not enough to label them as a one-trick pony though (cue song, May the horse be with you), because it's not what they're displaying in the song. It's more like the foundation, and it's understandable that you'd reuse a fantastic foundation because hey, it worked last time, and no one sees the foundation of a building except an appraiser anyway!
Keeping up with this metaphor, the walls of the house are the lyrics, clever and easy to sing along to. A catchy drum beat is the attractive garden in the front and the electric guitars are the pleasent neighbors. I suppose the harmonies could be less common, but that is certainly a personal preference. Let's just say it's a unique lawn ornament that some people think is guady.
If you've never heard RK, then let me suggest a few songs: they're a really wide variety of styles, so listen to more than one if you don't like the first one! I tried to avoid the ones that everyone knows (from the radio) so that you could have a fresh taste.
Recommended K:
High of 75
Mood Rings
I'm Lion-O
Silly Shoes
Forward MotionCurl Up and Die
Here I Go
Sadie Hawkins Dance
Must Have Done Something Right
Monday, May 10, 2010
Lost Predictions
I was not always a Lost fan. In fact, three years ago I thought Lost was a cultish, awful show that sucked people in and spit out obsessed, marketable fans of every age group. That was before I had watched a single episode. Then, through word of mouth, I heard that many fans were abandoning the series because it got too confusing and unfollowable due to its new relationship with time travel. That's when I decided it was okay to start watching it.
So while season 5 aired, I got caught up on seasons 1 through 4; and then before the 6th season aired, I watched the 5th. So now we are back in the present (both in my recounting and in the show's current season. Well, technically back to 'the present' in Lost is more like 2004 or 2005, I suppose) and the final few episodes of the final season are airing in the next few weeks. So here is where I make predictions that I can either be proud of when they come true, or laugh at my misdirection when they prove false.
SPOILERS, but really no one reads this blog anyway, so SPOILERS!
So what will happen in the final 3 episodes, approximately four hours, of the show? We've probably gotten all we will get about the 'mythological backstory' of the island. The 'rules' of the smoke monster are very likely what Jack guessed: he can't kill them directly, just push them into situations where they kill themselves. Very likely, I'd bet that by the beginning of the last episode, only Jack, Sawyer, and Kate will be alive, and the smoke can kill Kate, so he might use Kate as leverage to force Sawyer to kill himself. So prediction 1: all mains will be 'dead' except Jack by the last 45 minutes of the last episode.
But no one would sponsor a show with that depressing of an ending. Jack's said repetedly that he's willing to be the new 'Jacob' and stay on the island to keep SM under wraps, but I don't see that happening. More likely, Desmond does something silly and psuedo-sciency like going down to the 'island core' or the 'wheel' that moves the island and breaks it. The ensuing EM energy released links all the consciences of the Lost cast to their alternate-reality versions we've been seeing clips of throughout this season. They'll all be 'safe' and 'alive' but retain their memories of the island and their deaths. Perhaps the EM energy will 'destroy' the reality that has been the show of Lost for the past 6 seasons, leaving the characters' conciences only 1 reality to cling to. If this does happen, I suspect Desmond will be isolated in the destroyed reality, acting as some sort of 'lock' to keep the SM inside of it.
Okay, that prediction was a little bit too detailed, and probably will not come true now that I've put that much thought into it. But for a more realistic prediction, can we all agree that SM will not get off the island and will be thwarted by the candidates? Or is that too vauge?
Final prediction of today: SM destroys Whitmore's entire team, but Whitmore (probably in death for drah-mah) scoffs and says something like 'it doesn't matter, everything is going as planned' reffering to the fact that he knows he will revert back to the alternate reality if Desmond succeeds. Oh, and probably in someone's final breath (glasses lady? i don't remember her name) they destroy both the sub and the plane.
Whelp! That's all I have for now. I'll see soon enough how much is just a bunch of crap!
So while season 5 aired, I got caught up on seasons 1 through 4; and then before the 6th season aired, I watched the 5th. So now we are back in the present (both in my recounting and in the show's current season. Well, technically back to 'the present' in Lost is more like 2004 or 2005, I suppose) and the final few episodes of the final season are airing in the next few weeks. So here is where I make predictions that I can either be proud of when they come true, or laugh at my misdirection when they prove false.
SPOILERS, but really no one reads this blog anyway, so SPOILERS!
So what will happen in the final 3 episodes, approximately four hours, of the show? We've probably gotten all we will get about the 'mythological backstory' of the island. The 'rules' of the smoke monster are very likely what Jack guessed: he can't kill them directly, just push them into situations where they kill themselves. Very likely, I'd bet that by the beginning of the last episode, only Jack, Sawyer, and Kate will be alive, and the smoke can kill Kate, so he might use Kate as leverage to force Sawyer to kill himself. So prediction 1: all mains will be 'dead' except Jack by the last 45 minutes of the last episode.
But no one would sponsor a show with that depressing of an ending. Jack's said repetedly that he's willing to be the new 'Jacob' and stay on the island to keep SM under wraps, but I don't see that happening. More likely, Desmond does something silly and psuedo-sciency like going down to the 'island core' or the 'wheel' that moves the island and breaks it. The ensuing EM energy released links all the consciences of the Lost cast to their alternate-reality versions we've been seeing clips of throughout this season. They'll all be 'safe' and 'alive' but retain their memories of the island and their deaths. Perhaps the EM energy will 'destroy' the reality that has been the show of Lost for the past 6 seasons, leaving the characters' conciences only 1 reality to cling to. If this does happen, I suspect Desmond will be isolated in the destroyed reality, acting as some sort of 'lock' to keep the SM inside of it.
Okay, that prediction was a little bit too detailed, and probably will not come true now that I've put that much thought into it. But for a more realistic prediction, can we all agree that SM will not get off the island and will be thwarted by the candidates? Or is that too vauge?
Final prediction of today: SM destroys Whitmore's entire team, but Whitmore (probably in death for drah-mah) scoffs and says something like 'it doesn't matter, everything is going as planned' reffering to the fact that he knows he will revert back to the alternate reality if Desmond succeeds. Oh, and probably in someone's final breath (glasses lady? i don't remember her name) they destroy both the sub and the plane.
Whelp! That's all I have for now. I'll see soon enough how much is just a bunch of crap!
Friday, April 30, 2010
One week in...
So I've had the new car for just over a week now. I'm really liking it, but I'm torn between 'new purchase anxiety' and 'new purchase superiority' complexes. Complexies? Compliix? How do you even pronounce that last one?
The Good.
Manual transmission was the correct choice. True, I'm sort of learning as I go how to handel certain situations, but as a whole it is nice to be able to accelerate when you want to. True, it's not going to beat anyone in a race, but it is refreshing to get a response right away from the vehicle.
CD player works, sound system is good, and as soon as I get the iPod connector cable for this thing, I will be in audio heaven.
GREAT visibility out the back. It is on par with visibility out the front. The seats are awkward to turn around in when backing up, but it's made easier by having a super-wide rear window.
Good mileage... if you want it. This past week I've been playing around with my mileage, seeing the range. Overall so far I've gotten about 30 MPG with equal city/ hw driving. One day (really trying) on the highway, I got an average of 40! This was an average commute home, going 65! I was really impressed. So of course, the next 2 days I drove like a maniac, seeing how much I could push that average down... Turns out hard driving on the highway (low gear passing, higher avg speeds) stays around 30. Hard city driving gets the worst by far, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.
Feels very comfortable cruising, even up to 80. No overbearing engine noise, no thrasing feeling. Takes the bumps of city streets quite admirably, too.
The speedometer is loads easier to read when the headlights are on. I only test drove the car in the day, and had complained the gauges were vauge and hard to interpret, but with the dash light on, all the major unit lines are lit up. I guess that's a good thing. If only they were easily visible all the time.
The bad.
Electronic acclerator means sometimes a delay in revving the engine. It's especially annoying when you're trying to double-clutch on the highway. True, modern syncros mean that you don't need to double-clutch, but it saves the transmission some wear in the long run, and to be quite honest, I'm just practicing for when I have to shift in the Z car ;)
Light color not only is unnattractive (to some, but not all), but it shows dirt and pollen accumulation too well. This has been cripplingly bad this past week with all the rain we've had. It may be a new car, but it looks dirtier than everything else on the road.
The back window may be wide and awesome to look out, but it is a tad high. Because of the large, rising trunk, the rear window has a distinctive 'upwards tilt' that I'm not use to yet, causing much anxiety when I need to parallel park. I'm sure I'll get use to it.
REALLY soft suspension. If anyone knows of that stretch of 93N near exit 36, you'll know a well-known 'ripple' in the road. Hitting this at highway speeds in the Focus causes the pillow-soft springs to toss you waaaay up and down. I'm sure getting stiffer shocks would prevent this (it was not nearly this bad in the Jetta), but would detract from around-town driving smoothness.
Tire pressure was low when they gave me the car. A few days later it got cold, and the tire pressure light blinked on. Not really a complaint about the car, just a complaint in general. I had to re-air the tires within the first week of ownership (
I'll update the blog with anything else I notice. But for the first week, I'm very content!
The Good.
Manual transmission was the correct choice. True, I'm sort of learning as I go how to handel certain situations, but as a whole it is nice to be able to accelerate when you want to. True, it's not going to beat anyone in a race, but it is refreshing to get a response right away from the vehicle.
CD player works, sound system is good, and as soon as I get the iPod connector cable for this thing, I will be in audio heaven.
GREAT visibility out the back. It is on par with visibility out the front. The seats are awkward to turn around in when backing up, but it's made easier by having a super-wide rear window.
Good mileage... if you want it. This past week I've been playing around with my mileage, seeing the range. Overall so far I've gotten about 30 MPG with equal city/ hw driving. One day (really trying) on the highway, I got an average of 40! This was an average commute home, going 65! I was really impressed. So of course, the next 2 days I drove like a maniac, seeing how much I could push that average down... Turns out hard driving on the highway (low gear passing, higher avg speeds) stays around 30. Hard city driving gets the worst by far, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.
Feels very comfortable cruising, even up to 80. No overbearing engine noise, no thrasing feeling. Takes the bumps of city streets quite admirably, too.
The speedometer is loads easier to read when the headlights are on. I only test drove the car in the day, and had complained the gauges were vauge and hard to interpret, but with the dash light on, all the major unit lines are lit up. I guess that's a good thing. If only they were easily visible all the time.
The bad.
Electronic acclerator means sometimes a delay in revving the engine. It's especially annoying when you're trying to double-clutch on the highway. True, modern syncros mean that you don't need to double-clutch, but it saves the transmission some wear in the long run, and to be quite honest, I'm just practicing for when I have to shift in the Z car ;)
Light color not only is unnattractive (to some, but not all), but it shows dirt and pollen accumulation too well. This has been cripplingly bad this past week with all the rain we've had. It may be a new car, but it looks dirtier than everything else on the road.
The back window may be wide and awesome to look out, but it is a tad high. Because of the large, rising trunk, the rear window has a distinctive 'upwards tilt' that I'm not use to yet, causing much anxiety when I need to parallel park. I'm sure I'll get use to it.
REALLY soft suspension. If anyone knows of that stretch of 93N near exit 36, you'll know a well-known 'ripple' in the road. Hitting this at highway speeds in the Focus causes the pillow-soft springs to toss you waaaay up and down. I'm sure getting stiffer shocks would prevent this (it was not nearly this bad in the Jetta), but would detract from around-town driving smoothness.
Tire pressure was low when they gave me the car. A few days later it got cold, and the tire pressure light blinked on. Not really a complaint about the car, just a complaint in general. I had to re-air the tires within the first week of ownership (
I'll update the blog with anything else I notice. But for the first week, I'm very content!
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