The Long Road

Archives: June 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

A bit late, but better than never. X-men 3 was a mixed bag for me. As your stereotypical summer blockbuster it succeeds; as a continuation of the film series and adaptation of the comics, it doesn’t do so hot.

X-Men 3 has a lot of spectacle, lots of great whiz-bam-boom action that’s very entertaining and it’s really just plain fun to see these characters do such unimaginable things. While the movie wasn’t made with near the same level of competence we see in X2’s prison breakout and White House breakin, I’d probably be happy with just a movie of these guys walking around doing cool shit anyways. There are all new levels of awesome when it comes to seeing characters you’ve read about since the age of 12 come to life. And the fact that it’s Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen doing said cool shit is just gravy and cheese curds.

The bad? Well, the movie fails in 1 particular area that I think superhero movies aren’t too great at so far: Logic. The plot is nonsensical, the characters stupid (not that they’re bad characters, but that they’re intellectually untalented), and the chain of events flawed. At the film’s third act, Magneto (who could just crush Alcatraz on his own) decides to re-align Golden Gate Bridge so march his troops in. Instead of first bombarding his target (like anyone with half a brain would know to do) he sends in the ground troops and THEN bombs the place. So maybe it’s just Magneto that’s stupid? But then the X-Men seeing that Magneto wants the kid that’s been weaponized to depower all mutants decide to intervene. Why? Because Magneto is evil. So they go off killing dozens of other mutants for the sake of protecting this guy. This is where the film’s way too short running time (AND change of director) hurts it, there’s no debate about their course of action, no doubts or concerns that maybe, just maybe Magneto is right. So maybe it’s all mutants that are stupid? Well, at the end of the movie we’re told that America is well on its way to embracing mutants…how come? Middle soccer-mom America just saw mutant warfare destroy 2 of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks. Maybe it’s just all Americans who are stupid. See what I mean about this movie failing at logic…

What really sucks about the movie is that it closes the door to many possibilities. By the end of X3, the majority of the mutants from the first film are either dead, depowered, or had their consciousness transferred to new bodies. The fact that the studio insists that this will be the last X-Men movie ever meant that they tried to squeeze in as many plotlines and characters as possible. That really hurts because we’ll now never get a real kickass Cyclops story (he deserves one, damnit!), a real version of Psylocke, nor a Dark Phoenix Saga (condensing THE seminal X-Men story into a 90 minute movie’s B-Plot is ridiculously ridiculous).

But honestly, that’s just the fanboy ranting, it was a fun film. It did manage to (more or less) break the second sequel superhero movie curse (see Superman, Batman and Blade 3). It just could have been, y’know, better…

Posted by Rayne @ 03:37 AM EST [Link] [2 comments]

Friday, June 23, 2006

So I've spent like 3 days working on this, and I think it's pretty good. I'm trying this "new" thing were you group your work experience based on the type of experience it is instead of listing what you've done at each job. This gives a really good overview of what you've done with each skill set.

Now it's up to you guys! I need some "critique" of it. Be as brutal as you want, look over everything, the smallest detail from layout, font size, table width, spelling, to actual content (like..do my points make sense? do they say anything?) . If you feel especially nice, you can download the resume, makes changes to it and email it back to me.

Here you go, chop chop!

Posted by Rayne @ 02:05 AM EST [Link] [8 comments]

Thursday, June 22, 2006

So I went to check out the new ultra-high-tech library that just opened down the street, and I gotta say, it was pretty cool! Very spacious, with lots of rooms for quiet study (somewhat of a surprise since we're not close to anything more than elementary schools) and a great assortment of books, music, movies, and best of all...comics/mangas/BDs! Here's a picture taken with my trusty Bat-Phone. I was pretty impressed with the selection, a lot of the requesite graphic novels were there, and the selection of BDs (bande dessines/french comics) was pretty close to what is available in the main branch building.

As cool as the library here is, La Biblioteque National in Montreal is a lot cooler! The BD selection is 10 maybe 20 times larger. In fact, I doubt I've ever seen a larger collection of BDs anywhere. The place is pretty much a tourist attraction, and seemed more museum-y than library-y to me. Especially considering the security guards standing around telling people not to take pictures. Here's one of the CD section on the music floor (yeah..a whole floor dedicated to music).

Outside the library, we saw this humongo dog. Hard to tell in that picture, but the thing was at least 4 Gosias, so like..250 lbs or more. The dog was being pet(ted?) by this odd couple on the street .

Posted by Rayne @ 01:33 AM EST [Link] [4 comments]

Monday, June 19, 2006

Alright, some random sunday night facts about my MSN Messaging history (helped by the fact that I am now saving conversation histories).

Number of online contacts: 25
Number of offline contacts: 112
Number of people I've IM'd since saving MSN histories: 50
Total size of history folder: 16.4 Megs
Person I havent talked to for the longest time: Rachel (Dec.12, 2006)
Top 10 people I talk to (most to least): Arthur, Melissa, Kathleen, Gosia, dAN, David, Etienne, Darryl, Kate, Jenn
Last 10 people to talk to me (most to least recent): Gosia, Jenn, Melissa, Etienne, Arthur, Phong, Anderson, Arlen, Kathleen, Darryl

Posted by Rayne @ 12:47 AM EST [Link] [8 comments]

Thursday, June 15, 2006

It came to me why I like being up late and working at night etc. It's because all other obligations are done. Seriously. During the day you've gotta consumer calories, work out to lessen the impact of those calories, prepare meals, go to work, clean yourself, it just goes on and on...

But once all that's over with, there's nothing left to disctract you. Not even people, since most of them will be asleep (though it sucks that I regularly chat with 3 people who're on Pacific time...damn you guys).

Life is just much more settled and less hectic after 11pm, it's the perfect time to quietly get all the little things done that you werent able to squeeze in during the day...like Blogging.

Posted by Rayne @ 02:51 AM EST [Link] [4 comments]

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Wii will prevail. When it comes to Nintendo’s next console, it has two things going for it: it is cheap, and it is a revolutionarily new way of controlling console games. Coming in at somewhere between 200$ and 250$, Wii will be the cheapest of the 3 consoles and significantly so. Compared to the more-than-double price of the ps3, Wii will be quite attractive to those looking to purchase a new system. The wiimote (is it really being called this?) is likely to be the most intuitive way of controlling games ever made. I expect that first person shooters will finally have a better setup than the mouse and keyboard.

Wii has a couple of things against it: it is cheap, and it is a revolutionarily new way of controlling console games. Nintendo has a long way to go in educating consumers in the possibilities of the Wiimote. Throw in PS3’s tilt-sensing controller which only has ½ of the Wii’s functionality and we have consumers who will, more than ever, need to know how each console differs from the others. The price differential will definitely be felt. Wii’s visuals are going to seriously fall behind PS3 and 360, the last time this happened was when the dreamcast (*sniff*…*sob*…*cries uncontrollably*) launched.

Luckily for Nintendo, they now have experience with launching a revolutionary but graphically inferior machine against sleeker, sexier, more powerful hardware. The Nintendo DS faced its challenges and after languishing through some “gimmicky” software, it’s been able to more than hold its own through software that has used the touch screen to its true potential. The Wii will likely face a similar growth period where games will be either ports of old games just with a new way of controlling them or gimmick games made just to show the controllers functionality. However, this phase will pass and we’ll eventually get to not just innovation in control but whole new types of games and gameplay. That will be the Nintendo Revolution.

Posted by Rayne @ 05:33 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]

Thursday, June 8, 2006

So there I sat Monday night, watching Roloson get run
into AGAIN around midway into the third period of the
first game of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been one
of the constants surrounding the Edmonton keeper
throughout his playoff run. Aside from his consistent
performances and stellar play, you could also count on
him being run over or interfered with in every game.
He has clearly been the most violated goaltender
during this playoff campaign (no dirty thoughts
please). The collision resulted when Marc-Andre
Bergeron, the Oiler defenceman, cut off Andrew Ladd on
his way to the net, causing them both to barrel into
Roli and crush his right leg against the post.

[more]

Posted by Rayne @ 01:34 PM EST [Link] [7 comments]

Friday, June 2, 2006

The Xbox 360 will continue to fail in Japan. Microsoft is just not investing enough into Japanese content. The vast majority of their AAA titles focus on bald, hardass gun-wielding characters, this doesn’t fly with Japanese gamers; they like their heroes with angst and long hair!! Until the acquisition of or total devotion from a major Japanese publisher, the 360 will be hopelessly outgunned in Japan. Even MS’ biggest piece of news during EEE, securing the non-exclusivity of the next Grand Theft Auto, was pretty much non-news for the Japanese.

MS’ Xbox Live continues to be its biggest strength. The execution of Live as an integrated part of the Xbox has changed console gaming forever. Sony and Nintendo will be hard pressed to come up with a system as elegant and functional as Microsoft’s. In the end, I expect Live to remain the definitive online console experience. (I kind of slapped myself during Bill Gates’ EEE speech, after trying Hotmail Live and Live Messenger, I should have realized that it wasn’t merely a new branding strategy but an expansion and integration of MS’ online initiatives. More evidence of the importance of consoles to Sony and MS)

360’s 1 year head start on its competition will prove very beneficial come November, Gears of War will look at least as good as any PS3 game so Sony won’t be able to show consumers a justification for the price difference. Coupled with an almost-guaranteed price drop for the xbox, the 360 will be able to hold its own when PS3 hits. MS has, however, already squandered half of its lead time. Console shortages have led to a situation where supply did not meet demand and the current user base being smaller than it could have been. What we also might see, if MS feels brave enough, is a total abandonment of the cheaper version of the 360, but that’s a big if.

Posted by Rayne @ 01:29 PM EST [Link] [4 comments]

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