2008 - Year of the Reunions

Over the past 7 months, I've been running into way too many people from my past. Granted, the vast majority of these are good reunions and not psychotic ones, but what is it about this year, in general, that has twisted the universe to have me run into every person from my past? Old High School Friends, Jr. High Friends, old relationships, ex working buddies, ex bad relationships, past clubbing friends and now, past family of said above list.

Today, while running out for grub and a mug of stupid juice, as well as round 37 of flirtations with the unmentioned hottie, I run into Jake, Dustin's little brother. He has my curse, forever looking younger then he really is. Of course, this also made him easier to pick out. He recognized me as well, pretty much putting my last comment towards Stpeh's comment to me in grave danger of being inert.

It was good to say hi, catch up and find out that Dustin now lives in Orem. Maybe it will be easier to track him down for more then a pass of comments.

And In This Corner We Have ... Surprise

Well, just got back from my birthday dinner with my family. Yeah, I know, my birthday is tomorrow, but to make it easy for everyone to show up and me not having to go to work afterwards, we held it today instead. Also, it was a double b-day party, as we were also celebrating Sandy's birthday as well, though a few months late thanks to the fact she wasn't able to make it to the time we went out to eat for hers. Even though we went to Red Lobster, a place I haven't eaten in for a very long time, I doubt I'll be going back anytime soon.

No, the Chef didn't screw up .. the food was excellent.

No, wasn't the waiter, he kicked ass, was on top of things, had an amazing attitude and was so into my big sister, I had about 3' of drool in my food before he could serve it. Not literally, thankfully, but you get the idea.

The reason for my aversion from the location is that Psycho works where. Who's Psycho, you ask? Well, let me take you back ten years when I dated someone for two and a half years, a year of that living together. Everything was happy and fine. Her kids loved me to death, and I loved them in return. Yet, one day it was over ... no ands, ifs or buts. Why? Cuz she saw me talking to a ex-girlfriend I had not seen in three years. Therefore, its only obvious that I was sleeping with her, or that's how Psycho saw it, and reamed me a new one the same night and wouldn't let up. For 6 months that followed this, she would leave countless messages on our telephone, I had moved back in with mom. These messages were way out there too. The accusations were more absurd with each passing week to boot, some of which countered the previous weeks rantings. Thanks to all this, I of course give you the Cliff Notes version, I renamed her Psycho.

Thankfully, she didn't recognize me, or she simply decided to play nice since she was on the clock. Not sure which, she didn't really give any sign to one way or the other. I played nice as well, doing my best to not show any recognition until after we left and told mom, sis and sis about who sat us. The looks on their faces told the story.

Either way, it was still a great birthday dinner and its always good to chat it up with family, as we have more fun then we should. Well, until the next birthday party ... let's just hope Psycho isn't wherever we go.

Slowly Inching Towards The 34th Hump

Its been a while since my last update. Been pretty busy with Hell to Hell, Dark Future and squeezing in Rock Band and Penny Arcade Adventures in-between a few movies. One of the reasons Hell to Hell has started taking up so much energy is the fact I've been working diligently on securing the next step to the series, and its not exactly Avalon Rising (the name of the next chapter in the story). Instead, I've been working on the extended version of; Reemergence. I'm not going to get into it too much right now, but if it all works, it will indeed be exciting ... for me at least. Plus, it will mean people can download the MP3 version of the story and listen to it anywhere, instead of having to be logged into the site. Which for many is a huge bonus.

I also got to see Son of Rambow recently, which for those not in the know, is about two kids who have been so influenced by seeing the first Rambo movie, they want to make their own Rambow movie. While there are some dead spots, its a great movie, but good luck finding it in a theater near you. If it is in one, take a chance. Speaking of which, I also watched the new Rambo, and while I didn't find it nearly as good as the last Rocky flick, it was still entertaining for a John Rambo movie. Also broke down and watched The Walker, with Woody Harrelson. This was a pretty damn good movie, especially when it compare it to the lame trailers I saw. I mostly gave it a chance due to the cast, and didn't regret it.

Finally, tomorrow will be my 34th birthday. How time flies. Outside of work, not sure exactly what I'll be doing besides continuing the process of cleaning up Dark Future and expanding on Hell to Hell. I'll try to find time to enjoy it nonetheless.

Indiana Jones and the Spoiler-less Post + Wil Wheaton

Well, saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crowd Separator today and I pretty much loved it. The reason I say ‘pretty much’ is the fact that the crowd really affected my enjoyment of the flick. First off, I should point out this is the type of movie I love to see with a crowd. I love seeing things where the audience is in sync with what’s going on, if it be they are laughing, clapping, jumping, or whatever … and a Indiana Jones movie has tons of potential to deliver these moments and the Crystal Skull delivered it well. Too bad it didn’t deliver for everyone.

Next, for those that want to know what flavor of Indiana Jones this movie is, it’s about 75% Raiders, 20% Crusade and 5% Doom. A Neapolitan heavy on strawberry and light on vanilla, so to speak. I say this because the movie has the feel of the first movie for the majority of the plot. They’ve even gone at lengths to use a older, or modified to look older, Paramount logo, as well as modified much of the picture to look like it was made more in the vein of Raiders. This all benefits the movie a great deal. Just too bad that some locations scream ‘set location’ in this flick … which takes away from some of the magic.

Now, as for the ‘crowd separator’ part. As the plot builds and the typical inclusion of the ‘beyond’ is introduced to the movie, you could literally feel, see and hear the crowd split into two groups. The group that was still along for the ride and enjoyed the movie, and the group that lost interest as soon as the ‘ghostly spirits / heart obsessed / old man in a cave’ plot (aka, the beyond) began to be fulfilled. In some ways, I found this hilarious, as sitting next to me was a group of people that couldn’t stop talking about the past movies before it started. During this pre-show yammering, they went on in great detail about how much they loved the guy that could reach into someone’s chest and take their heart, or the old Crusader watching over the Carpenters cup, yet during the movie, as the Crystal Skull’s plot is revealed, you could see and hear them losing all interest in the movie. They stopped laughing, cheering or even following along. They just simply folded their arms and acted like they were in Sunday School. In fact, once it was over, they turned to each other and said the movie was great, and would have been perfect, if they just had left the whole ‘beyond’ aspect out of the script. I find it funny that the very things they loved about the past movies is the very thing they hated about this one.

Anyway, regardless of this, it was a fun ride for everyone, especially the person sitting right behind me who confused the back of my chair as a brake pedal. Every time one of the ‘fast cars’ got in a situation that was ‘dire’, I felt that foot press up against the back of my seat as if it had some magic power to effect the unchangeable events taking place on screen. The other annoyance was the person sitting on the opposite side of me that wanted to bet away his life savings on what was going to happen next. Honestly, I wish I could have jumped in on those bets, cuz I’d be rich and he’d be homeless. Not that I called all the plot points, but because he couldn’t get one right even if Lucas or Spielberg was there sitting next to him giving him hints.

While the reviews of this movie have been all over the place, with some giving it 5 out of 5 stars and others a blah, I’d easily give it a 4 and a half. While there wasn’t all that much that ruined the movie, there were times I could see the Lucas Effect taking over what could have been another Spielberg masterpiece. It also didn’t help that there were countless moments you could tell it wasn’t Harrison Ford. I like it better when you have to know it’s a stunt man, but you can’t tell. Yet, thanks to the great humor, multiple references from the time period, from the big boom to ‘the outsiders’ moment, to even the inclusion of characters that have far too long been missed, this movie was one wonderful ride and any Indiana Jones fan is sure to love.

Next up, the aforementioned Wil Wheaton. I also received today my copy of the PAX07 DVD set, and instantly, after getting back from the movie, popped in the first disk to watch the Wil Wheaton keynote that I have loved for all so long. Well, since last year anyway. Seeing it, and not just hearing it, was great. I thought that I really missed out when I listened to it, but to see it, I realized just how much I missed out on. Also, it re-delivered the feelings I felt hearing it for the first time and how it made me feel to be a gamer. Again, I find my pride in my hobby high as can be and a continuing feeling a ‘HUG YOU’ to anyone that wishes the gaming industry any level of harm.

Now, decisions, decisions. Do I continue playing Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rainslick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, or do I make Episode 19 of Hell / Hell


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Hell / Hell it is!

AN-I-MAL!!!

While the picture speaks for itself, for those that know what they are looking at, I will explain it for those that don't get it. Recently, I decided to break down and attempt to finally finish off the expert drum career mode and stop just playing everything else. Finally defeating "Don't Fear The Reaper" and "Foreplay/Long Time", I knew that out of the final five songs, two of them were going to be a pain, as I've beaten the other three via quickplay mode. After quickly passing those three songs, I decided to skip Run to the Hills and just go for "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who. To my own surprise, I got past it in two tries. Unfortunately, trying to beat "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden wasn't as easy. Yet, early this morning, I called out a very joyous "YES!!" as I finished the tough section and was allowed to coast into victory.

Not only is it great to finally make my way through expert drum career on Rock Band, it's fun to finally see that AN-I-MAL Achievement appear on the screen. Possibly one of the coolest named achievements in game history, as Animal is one of the most awesome puppets EV3R!

Going Backwards to Advance Forward

Since April, when I got back up off my ass, dragged out the dusty work that is Dark Future and began to work on it again, I have found myself going in a different direction. Part of this comes from the fact I have been doing Hell / Hell, which has benefited me greatly with the ability to better visualize the events that take place before the events in Dark Future itself. In this, I have been able to get a better sense of what needs to be done, where I need to go, and how I'll get there within the pages that make up the Dark Future Series. An interesting by-product of this is that the word count of Dark Future has dropped from about 330k words (roughly two 500 page novels) to 220k words. Backwards you say? I say nay.

First off, I should point out that the 330k version that existed before I picked it back up was in all actuality a jumble of paragraphs that spanned the entire story, which skips and jumps between the years of 2018 and 2023, with very little connection. The reason for this is that it was my first attempt to recapture as much as I could after the iteration before it, which apexed at 700-710k words had been bitten by a nasty virus and turned into a corrupt, useless thing. After picking it up again, I have been retyping the missing parts, but at the same time, making huge sections evaporate. Sections of story that I once felt built a character, or even the story, I have come to discover are nothing more then a over sized anchor that I HAVE to get rid of or else. One of the reasons for this is that, at least to me, Dark Future is a very epic story ... not exactly Lord of the Rings kind of Epic, but still Epic. To give you an idea, in the first 60 or so pages, close to 50 named characters are introduced, though a small number of them are actually given a deeper part and development as they appear. Regardless, that's a huge number to be juggling at the same time adding what could feel like, at the time, great storytelling.

Having a better sense of what I want and need to do, I have focused more on things that matter to the story and less on things that will mean very little in the long run. This is a huge change due to the fact that when I started working on Dark Future all those years ago, I wrote out the characters experiences like they lived real lives, regardless of the fact if those experiences came into a deeper play or not throughout the course of the books. For an example, I showed that Sara was a competent martial artist due to years of training, though she never uses the skill once throughout the story. While I can't say for certainty that everything is now or will be 'plot centric', I can say that things are more focused, and I'm seeing a huge improvement.

Another change I have seen in the process of working on the story again is who's perspective deliverance comes from. Reason I point this out is that over the many years, I have kept the re-typing of the story as close to the original as I could, even if I started over on purpose to add / remove major plots, characters and time lines, as well as other things. If one character, let's say Ryan D'arkangelo, said something or retold the history of an event, I've had him be the one to do it in every iteration of the work. Only time this changed was when I erased a character from the story altogether. This time around, to make things smoother and less clunky in areas, I have found myself moving some of these moments and experiences to other characters. While this might not make sense to anyone outside of family, a major plot and time line telling of the Mutant Deficiency Virus is told by Marie, who happens to be suffering from it. Now, in Dark Future's current state, this time line and plot is told through the eyes of Sara, her daughter. Also, instead of happening in the middle of a Salt Storm, which I found a huge pacing problem, it now takes place in a much better area where the history lesson doesn't interrupt a major event.

While I still have no doubt that the Saga will still be three to four novels long, I can say with certainty, at this point, it will be a completely different monster then I original visioned back in 1992. Yet, at the same time, I can't help but notice and feel that this monster is much better developed and will be a greater experience ... if not for the reader, at least for me as a writer.

Bonus: The picture above, on the right, not the left obviously, is an original artwork I drew way back in the day of the character, Shitoshi Kurioshima. Thought I'd add it since it is a Dark Future update post and I wanted to share something from it. For a larger view, just clicky on it.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

It's strange when I look back over my blog and see that over the past 6 months or so, if not longer, my blog has become less and less about the fun things (Richard-ism’s and other things I deal with in life) and more about the latest Rock Band DLC or Hell / Hell Episode announcements, which I stopped doing at episode 8. Not that I stopped doing Hell / Hell, which is now on Episode 13, it’s that I stopped turning my main blog into a news real that only said ‘lookie, new episode now available’. I say this mostly due to the fact I look at the amount of material I have had to deliver over that period of time, including yet another top notch ‘coffee’ Richard-ism … only to never post any of them.

I find this a problem, and I aim to fix it.

While there might be some that are indeed curious what I think about the Rock Band DLC, ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ by Blondie, or even ‘Train in Vain’ by The Clash, there are far better and more video game centric sites for that and I doubt my biggest fans (of my blog that is) could care a rats raunchy fart less about what I think about the latest Rock Band DLC.

Because of this, I’m going to attempt to post more about things that are more interesting from my life, to get my directional finder pointing towards a new horizon. Well, not such a new horizon, as I’ve posted these type of things before, but a correction of course to get back to these type of posts.

Let’s see how long that lasts…

Short Raider Questions Zayne On Writing

Difference Of Opinions

Holy Iron Man / GTAIV / Meetings / Everything Else Audio Update Batman

Okay, these three audio updates are of me rambling like mad. Try not to get too bored as I go through way too many things all at once. Outside of that, enjoy the update that isn't only about a new Hell / Hell episode.