Bunny Puppy Lives!

I finally got around to making a new Bunny Puppy comic. . . and made a new blog to start posting the things.

Not that anyone reads this to see my little notice, or that anyone will read that one.

Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Time for a long needed update to this blog.

First of all, everyone playing The Game, you just lost.

Secondly, and more on topic, I finally found a copy of The Godfather and whilst I'm not disappointed in the purchase, I am disappointed in how absolutely fucking useless the rating on it is.

You see, it's rated R18+ for medium level violence and only medium level violence. Not high level violence, not strong violence like The Wrong Man (aka Lucky Number Slevin for those in America) which is rated MA15+ for strong violence and strong sex scenes, which I presume are only strong because nobody really wants to see Lucy Liu having sex anymore. Medium level violence is enough to make a movie R18+.

Yet somehow The Incredibles is rated PG for medium level violence mature themes and low level course language.

Inconsistent much?

The same theme carries over for all R18+ movies I own: Fight Club is R rated for adult themes Clockwork Orange is R rated for medium level violence, Pulp Fiction has high level coarse language motherfucker, medium level violence and drug use and Orgazmo has sexual references.

I think it goes without saying that if anyone has seen any of those movies, the only one that comes even close to accurately describing why it has an R rating is Pulp Fiction, because you can have sexual references, medium level violence and adult themes in a PG rated movie.

The whole system is broken and useless yet for some reason they've decided that this R rating that they so happily apply to movies without reason cannot be applied to games. Despite the fact that all the MA15+ rated games I own have strong violence.

The OFLC and Attorneys General need to pull the stick out of their asses and apply reason to their ratings so that I can shove baseball bats up people's asses in videogames.

OH ZE PAIN

I've been lazy.

I shall continue to be lazy, at least in regards to my blog.

Exercise causes pain by the way, remember that kiddies, but it also gives you arms like a fucking gorilla. Are gorilla arms awesome enough to be worth the pain? Probably not, but they're amusing.

Also, support awesome people who hate the recording industry.

Sit Down, Shut Up & Play

It seems the current trend in gaming right now is MMOs and other online gameplay styles intended to draw people into use of the same product over and over and over again until they burn out and start a new game. Which is okay, but it means that games will be hit or miss, for every World of Warcraft and Halo which will get millions of people using their online services bringing in quite a large amount of subscription revenue, there's hundreds of games designed with the same intent that barely sell at all.

Obviously this style just doesn't work for everyone, a lot of people who enjoy video games can't invest 20 hours a day into gaming and the two or three hours a week they can spend isn't enough to justify the cost, not to mention you fall behind every other person in the (typically very competitive) communities.

The other trend is the "casual" mini-game, which you can play for only two or three hours a week and feel like you're getting enough out of the game, or you can dump hundreds of hours into them as well. Basically, they revolve around simplistic gameplay meaning that. . .well, they lack content.

Those are the two main types of games that companies are going for, the hardcore time-investment or the cheap gimmicks, on top of that there are the "real" games, like Bioshock or the Baldur's Gate series, which are great,and are based on delivering one big-ass bundle of entertainment (typically the games range from 10-40 hours of gameplay, but can go well over 200 hours in some cases) yet really do require that you invest a lot of time into them.

I don't want any of that shit at the moment, if I want to play a game, I either have to invest quite a few hours to make a dent in progressing through it, or have some inane mini-game which can wear thing very quickly. This is meant to be a form of consumable entertainment, so why are there so few options that can be completely enjoyed in two or three hours and feel like you're getting a full experience?

It's obviously a great market to try and exploit, if there were more games out there that I could beat in the time it took to watch Shaun of the Dead, then I'd really be happy because it means I could enjoy a medium I like without having the major downsides. There's only really one current game title out there that fills that role, Portal, easily the best game of last year.

Imagine the possibilities of a market where there were games out there which you could enjoy without a heavy time investment that weren't just cheap mini-games? It's a perfect market because the average age of gamers in Australia is 28 years old, and somehow I don't think there are too many people that old who still live with their parents, have no job and no social life. Especially seeing as by then people tend to be starting families so they really can't invest the 40 or so hours some games like Mass Effect demand of you in order to get the most out of your purchase.

Not to mention that there are many forms of entertainment out there specifically designed to be around two to three hours long because it can be enjoyed in one sitting, or a few short periods of time. Movies, television, quite a few books . . . yet the emerging form of consumption has failed to realise that if you put out content that can be enjoyed properly in a reasonably short space of time. If developers could just take advantage of this instead of insipidly trying to churn out the next WoW, gaming might be seen as something other than just something for 16 year old boys with long greasy hair and pimply visages.

Nintendo knows that if you make gaming accessible, people will do it, the "non-game" releases such as Brain Training on the DS is proof of that, so why doesn't anyone want to take the next step?

I haven't done any blog entries in a while because I've been busy. . .and I just didn't feel like it, so consider this a half hearted attempt to get back on track.

VROOM

Yesterday marked a famous day in human history, sort of a sequel hallmark to November 12.

Yesterday marked the day in which the streets are truly no longer safe, because I bought myself a shiny old car. A 98 Lancer GLi Coupe, with a mere 32000km on the odometer, quite the steal despite the ridicule I've copped so far for buying a Lancer.

Everything is being sorted out now, there's some paperwork to sign and I have to fork over practically all of my moneys, but the important thing is that I'll have me some wheels.

Bookkeepers Rejoice As Guitar Hero Wins

So the Triple J Hottest 100 is over with for the year.

Regina Spektor's Real Love came in at a paltry #29, which is disappointing and of course practically everything else I've voted for did poorly as well. I think the highest ranked song I voted for was Soko's I'll Kill Her at #9, everything else came somewhere between #21 and #72 or didn't rank at all in the case of Sonata Arctica (which is pretty expected).

Although that's nothing, considering the big news from the day.

Silverchair's Straight Lines came in #2 instead of winning, like everyone expected (matter of fact it was the strongly backed favourite to win, and if it did win I'm sure the bookkeepers would have had to pay out a fair bit of money) and was beaten by Muse's Knights of Cydonia, a song which had practically no radio play and isn't even the best song on the album (which is in fact a good album, go "buy" it. Now.).

So how did a song by a British band which didn't see much radio play and is practically unheard of in the mainstream audience manage to win the world's biggest music poll?

Why it's quite simple. They cheated.

You see, Knights of Cydonia is one of the tracks playable in Guitar Hero 3, one of the my favourites in fact, despite it being one of the more difficult songs. So, like many other songs from GH3, they've experienced even greater success after the release of the game, meaning they got paid money to make more money.

Sudden Realisations Can Suck

Everyone surely knows what a "Eureka! moment" is. What most people don't realise is that a sudden great idea is not the only way things can happen, the reverse of the "Eureka" or as I like to think of it "Akerue" is when you have a sudden realisation about something and see that it's all just going wrong.

I had one about that little story I was putting together, as much as I thought it would be a good story and that it might have even been genuinely interesting, it was a love story at it's core and I wouldn't write something that I wouldn't want to read. Obviously, this means my little "Akerue" moment was that I had wasted all that time thinking of developing the story.

Sure, I'll keep the fun stuff from it, but the core of the story needs complete revision so for now I'm just going to go develop random characters so that I can work a story around the new characters as something that I want to write.

Simpsons Already Did It

So I was watching the Simpsons the other day and I came to a sad realisation. If you pick and mix a few key plot points from the various Simpsons episodes to have aired in the last god knows how many years. . . you get the story I was putting together.

I don't know if this is a bad thing, that I'm really stretching for excuses not to continue on with my little project or it just means that because the Simpsons has been on the air for so damn long you could string together various plot elements from the 410 or so episodes thus far and you've covered every story ever told.

Considering their penchant for parodying pop culture, it definitely means a lot of stories are covered, throw in the fact that occasionally they actually think of a good original plot and the fact that most stories can be boiled down to base elements which could be seen anywhere. . . it's probably safe to assume that stringing together plot elements seen in the Simpsons is pretty much akin to stringing together any random plot elements that come to mind is about the same.

Originality is dead, I blame Matt Groening.

So That's What A Car Is!

This weekend was spent looking at cars. I looked at a grand total of two cars, both shit, but on the plus side, I have a baseline for Civics and Lancers, they're good cars it seems, I just need to find one that isn't due to die.

You know what? I just can't be bothered going into detail on this one, cars are just too much effort for me, the sooner this is over the better off I'll be. Plus, I'll have a car.

And yes, I am deliberately making this post a lot shorter than the last one to balance out the tl;dr from last time.

Dear Diary

For those that don't keep track, for the last week or so I've been jotting notes down in a notebook I keep in my work bag whenever I'm bored or have nothing else to do. Which basically equates to when I'm on the bus. The little notebook I normally write in has already filled up, and the A4 book is just too awkward to write in on a bus so I bought a new handbook to jot down thoughts and observations. Obviously this is essentially a journal, but I prefer to call it my "mini notebook" in the case of the little book, "not-mini notebook" for the A4 one, and the new A5 one is "not mini but not 'not-mini' notebook".

Today, I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just going to write what I wrote on the bus home. With some comments tacked on. Italics for what I wrote, normal font for comments.

And so the experiment continues with the mini notebook effectively full (to the point I can't be bothered writing anymore in it) and the not-mini simply too large and inconvenient for my general usage.
Introductions are rare, but I had this blog entry in mind when I wrote this.

Thus, I have purchased this not-mini but not "not-mini" notebook to see if it holds up any better. Admittedly, with the huge spirals, I have low expectations for it's use, but there doesn't appear to be much paper in this thing, so I don't think this will last long enough to be an issue.
Note to self, buy non-shitty notebooks in the future.

Of course, the purchase of this notebook delayed me after work, meaning I missed both the 155 & 135 buses, leaving me to catch the infamously overcrowded 130. Which also has the side effect that I have to walk home from Mains Rd instead of ending up right next to my house.

It's not that bad aside from being terribly late.
Late buses are evil.

Anyhow, after filling up one notebook, I feel urged to comment on how effective this venture has been so far. All-in-all, I'd say it's pretty good; the brain juices are flowing, for some (probably unrelated) reason I'm more focused at work (for the better part anyhow) and it's almost like there is progress being made on that little novel I was concocting. Some might say "great success!" and I'd be obliged to smack them for quoting Borat.

BOOYAKASHA!
Self-observation and ironic quoting helps pass the time apparently.

Still need to look for a car though, need to get in contact with the owner of the '01 Lancer, what with me somewhat interested in making that vehicle mine, and mine alone.

Possessive be I, says you? Only for possessions!
At this point the guy next to me was playing his PSP and my iPod had run out of batteries, so I decided to resort to cheap, simple jokes to have something to write about. For some reason it really helps me if there is something on in the background, like music.

Looks like this book be slightly easier to write in too. Now I only have the bus and my handwriting to blame.
Took a few tries to work out what this one said. My handwriting sucks and ever tried writing on a moving bus? It's hard. Hard like a rock! Not to mention that the mini notebook was impossible to write on because I held it in the palm of my hand, which is a pain and a half, and then another half.

As a completely random observation, as many of the things in these notebooks are, putting pen to paper seems remarkably effective for making thoughts almost remotely good. . . er. Instead of drifting from one thought to another I focus on the one, revising it mentally as my pen races to catch up.

It does mean less of the interesting points are jotted down, but at least what makes it down is "refined".
It's true, but I have to admit, the random thought process I have it more fun. Hopefully as I get more used to writing, I'll be able to keep up with what I'm thinking and have my normal thoughts on paper instead of these highly revised editions, which are somewhat dull in comparison.

Buses are too much hassle, all this sitting and waiting, standing and waiting. . . very dull. Not to mention the long walk home afterwards.
Buses suck.

I've already walked from Queen St to work to Adelaide St to work to Adelaide St to Queen St to work to Post Office Square to Queen St. Oh, and there was the sprint to the bus this morning too. Far too much exercise for this little rabbit, especially in this hot, humid weather.
I can't be bothered to work out the exact distance, but Queen St to work is something like 750m. I'd say it's roughly 4.5km though. I'd like to note the "X to Y to Z" format was deliberate in order to make things seem worse than they were towards the end of it. Is there anything wrong in making text look like it's dragging on and on to convey the point of something dragging on and on? I think not.

It would be fun to just get myself in the mindset of a character and write away like this. Forcing different perspectives out of meself for fun and profit. Could even be a useful tool in getting ready to become an aspiring author. Which is, of course, the next step for me before the final stage of "dejected, talentless hack".
I make no assumptions that I have talent, but every once in a while I have an idea that I think might help my writing. In this case, writing things like this in a random character's perspective helps give the character depth and I personally believe that every action a fictional character takes has to be understandable, even if the explanation is given later. Basically, people shouldn't do things "just because" but because that's who they are and the readers understand that.

Come on bus, take me home. I has me some chocolate in my bag. Rich, dark, tasty chocolate. Go bus, go!
Buses really suck.

Dark chocolate does not.

I always seem to associate a familiar environment with a person, typically someone I know who lives near there or I've been there with many times. The top of Kessels Rd makes me think of Jane, Parkway St reminds me of Carlos, the bit near Mac High or Rob etc. Come to think of it, landmarks or areas I frequent solo/with multiple people don't get that association, so there is no thrilling conclusion to the observation.
Sometimes random observations and realisations I have lead nowhere, this is why a lot of my jokes fail miserably, because it all works the same. Although obviously in cases like this, they don't work in any way, shape or form. Of course, I'm just writing whatever I'm thinking at the time, so in the other notebooks there's quite a few bits like this.

With that pointless remark over with, I'm getting off the bus soon so I'm done with the writing.

Aside from this last bit whilst we're stuck at traffic lights.

Availability of places to spend moolah = empty pockets. Willpower is for chumps!
I always seem to be running out of money whenever I go places where I can spend money. . . I generally do. My willpower does not compare at all to my spending power.

And with that, we're done. Hope you've enjoyed this insight into me noggin and tune in next time where we return to regular programming.