Gate Six

I’m looking forward to being done with these freaking finals, because I’m in need of adventure! Adventure is out there! [insert upwards facing thumb here]

Speaking of which, Up is a freaking beautiful movie that will crack you up.

If you haven’t seen it, what the hell are you waiting for? I’ll admit it, I cried when I saw it… Aw, shut the fuck up, you stonehearted dimwits. The best part is the dialogue between Dug and Mr. Fredricksen. It’s simply priceless. “I was hiding beneath your porch because I love you. Can I stay?” Ah, so freaking wonderful that I feel fluffy just thinking about it. Also, there are SQUIRREL! … Yeah, I doubt you’ll get that… Just… Nevermind, it’s funny if you know what I mean. Obviously, you don’t know. So yeah, have fun.  Go rent the movie or hoist the mainsail, I don’t care what you do, just do it!

Tomorrow is Saturday, the day to dance with the Devil, so hopefully there will be fun and excitement then. Bah, who am I kidding, I just want to get a hold of large quantities of alcohol and a good looking little thing to share it with… or maybe a tall thing, yeah, a tall thing will do just fine. Good looking tall thing…. Wait, where was I? Oh yes, Up! Great movie. Hopefully it will be out on DVD pretty soon and I can possess it. It shall be mine, oh yesss…. No? Coming on a bit too strong? Damn, the story of a lifetime.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I’m bored! And it’s not that I don’t have stuff to do, because I do have stuff to do, large heaping quantities of it. But I just don’t have the extra piff to get on with it or, should I say, get it on. Yeah, I know, not the best of jokes, but I don’t really feel like going through the effort. Which is the whole problem! Curse you, you damned boredom! But I guess it’s just that time of the year, finals have a tendency to make existence intolerable. The cure is a bottle of whiskey. More particularly, a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. Good god, that stuff is simply the best.

Ah well, time to head out to the gym and get rid of the bent up energy. At least it doesn’t seem so bad to be bored when you’re worn out and tired as hell. That, and the wonderfulness of chilling in the sauna afterward. Have I mentioned that I love the sauna? Well, now you know.

So god damn sleepy… I was supposed to get up before the crack of dawn, but whatcha know, that didn’t happen. I think I might have used up all my “get up at the early bird hour that I was trying to get up at”-juice when I was reading for that damned termpaper about games and narratives. Something which I really don’t want to think about again for a long time. Ah well, it’s been a week since I handed that one in, I should be able to get up and get some work done, don’t you think?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Well, at least I am up now, to read for the next termpaper that I have to start writing the next Monday. I can’t even try to begin to express in human words how much I am looking forward to being done with termpapers for this semester. Which is a large part of why I haven’t been able to do anything productive lately… well, other than schoolwork. And don’t bother to mention that little project I had going about NaNoWriMo and getting something done in a month, got bored and had too much other stuff to do. So go make like a chimney-sweep, why don’t you?

We’ve finally got snow here, even though it’s just a fine dusting of snow over the muddy and ugly fall ground. It’s nice though, I’m just hoping winter will be here soon. Well, maybe not here in Oslo, these people don’t know what to do with snow. Like a christian 40+ couple of newly weds who were saving themselves for marriage. “Does this go… no… Maybe? Should that? OUCH! NO NONO!” You know who I am talking about and those of you who I am talking about, you know what I am talking about. No, what I want is 3-6 meters of snow up North for when I get home for X-mas. I realized last night that I haven’t ridden a snowmobile in about 5 fucking years. Which also happens to be the amount of time that I’ve been living in this christian 40+ couple of newly weds who were saving themselves for marriage of a city. The only time lately that I am up North, is during X-mas and sadly there has been little to no snow there during X-mas the last few years. Rather disturbing, makes me start to actually believe in Global Warming.

But now, to head out into the world, book in hand and script in mind to mentally molest a catgurl over a cup of coffee. Hmm, I just gave myself a rather amusing mental image.

Condemned: Criminal Origins

So, today I’ve tried myself at analyzing a game, namely Condemned: Criminal Origins. There wasn’t a particular reason why I chose this game, it was simply one of the games that I had most clearly in mind. Given the fact that it’s been over 6 months since I played it, must mean something, I guess. Analyzing a game I’ve learned, is not the same as reviewing a game, nor is it the same as analyzing a film or a literary text. Quite frankly, I’ve been a bit stumped as to how I should go about it. I felt that either I could focus on the story part of the game or I could focus upon gameplay/-mechanics, mind you, I am talking about this game in particular, not games or game analysis in general, for reasons that I will come back to later. Anyhoo, I could focus on one or the other, but that I felt would be cheating, as the game consists of both parts. I am clearly no ludologist, holding more to the narratological approach to games (where it is aplicable), but gameplay, which is the word I’ll use for the activation of the gamemechanics, is central to the story and in many ways it is just the same, the other way around. Gameplay supports story, while story supports gameplay. They both have strenghts and weaknesses that go into making the game. But how, why and what?

But I am getting a bit away from what I was talking about and into something that I, as I said, will get back to at another time. No, to return to Condemned then… I analyzed it, both according to story and to gameplay. Now I just have to figure out how to merge the two. Really starting to regret that I missed out on that lecture about analyzing games, could have helped a lot right now.  I’m really having difficulty seeing how story and gameplay can be analyzed TOGETHER, not seperatly. I’ve nicked a few books about the subject (at least I hope they are on this subject) from Syntethic-White, so I’m going to give them a read through and see if an answer or two doesn’t pop up. The analysis of Condemned will be put up as soon as I’ve gotten it written into a coherent and finished form, instead of rambling bulletpoints written by hand.

Creativity is a strange and wonderful thing, so elusive and so fragile at times and so powerful and strong at others. Lately, there has been little of either kind of creativity going on for me. I have no idea why, well, that is a lie. A major lie, I know perfectly well why I haven’t felt creative, but I’ll leave it at that and try to work around it. I’ve got the ideas, but beyond the intial thought there is little of wonder and awe. So, therefore I shall try to set a challange for myself. Paintings, novellas and graphic novels… All these things have been spinning around in my head, fragments that if only could be captured, might grow into a pearl of pure luster and beauty. The challange is, quite simply, to finish. I’ll give myself a month. I’ll not decide right now which project that shall be begun. Maybe just one, maybe all. But finish it I shall. A deadline is an artist dread and horror, but in this situation I think it might be of aid in getting me out of this rut and actually producing something before my skills wither and die like a small child left under a bridge in the dead of winter by an uncaring mother too caught up in the drama of Life. Ah, the drama of Life.

Time for a cup of tea.

Found this over on The Escapist and I must say, it made my mustache tremble (ten points if you can tell me where that reference comes from). I haven’t been that interested in Dj Hero, basically because it sounded like a rather dumb idea and the only news I got about it came from webcomics that were making fun of (like webcomics are wont to do). But yeah, the video looks kickass and has at least  sparked an interest in me. Also, like mr. Funk over at the Escapist says, if we get to do half the things that they show in the video, I’m sold.

I’m pretty sure that won’t be the cause, but dear gods, if they make DJ battles where you get to ride around on mecha-boomblasters… Ehm, excuse me while I go find something to clean up with… But yes, it seems like it could be worthwile to give it a go. Don’t know if I’d buy it over Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but definetly worth a go. Note to self: must find some numbskull that can be convinced to buy this game.