Welcome to this week’s edition of my Geek Journal!

We’re finally upon the end of May, which also means an end to the “Month of Blockbusters”! And it’s definitely ending on a high note with Pixar’s latest release, Up. This is their 10th feature film, and Pixar doesn’t fail to please yet again. Up has been in the making for five years, with over a year of work done just to make the animation of the balloons look right! The film is also Pixar’s first foray into 3D projected films and I’m definitely looking forward to that. As with several of Pixar’s previous releases, audiences are treated to a short CG film before the main feature named Partly Cloudy.

In my travels throughout the Internets, I’m always coming across interesting and geeky things. Recently, I had my attention drawn to BuckyBalls, which consists of a bunch of small, round rare-earth magnets (note: not safe for small children!). The shapes that can be formed by them are endless and they can be a fun time-waster. Check out the website for a video that details some of the possibilities.

Did you know that hackers aren’t always after your data if they hack your computer? There are plenty of other things they can do with your system once they gain access to it. Sometimes, it’s not the data on your system that’s important, but the amount of bandwidth it gives hackers access to so they can compromise even more systems. The more systems a hacker has access to, the more “evil” things they can do, from sending out spam email to DDoS-ing a popular website. Make sure to always keep yourself protected! Anti-virus and firewalls are always a good first step, along with proper browsing habits.

To conclude this post, I’d like to cover something that popped into my head during the recent thunderstorms in my area. You probably remember back to your younger days that you could always figure out how far a bolt of lightning was by counting the seconds after you see the flash until you hear the thunder, then dividing that by five to get its distance in miles (or three to get kilometers for you non-US people . Here’s why that works: Due to the speed of light being so fast (186,000 miles per second), you see the flash from the lightning almost instantly. What you’re timing is how long it takes for the sound of the thunderclap to reach you, which is quite longer considering that speed of sound (around 768 miles per hour) is quite pokey compared to the speed of light. At that speed, it takes approximately five seconds for sound to travel one mile or:

1 mile / 768 mph * 3600 seconds/hour = 4.7 seconds/mile

The kilometer calculation is even closer:

1 kilometer / 1,236 km/h * 3600 sec/h = 2.9 seconds/km

That’s it for this week, see you next time!

Greetings, Lunataks!

Remember how sad and annoying it was when Hollywood and Televisionland decided that remakes were the sure-fire way to go when it comes to making butt-loads money?

Remember those days fondly, because the new money-making scheme is called “the reboot”.

Birthed partly out of the fallout of last year’s writer’s strike, reboots are an attempt to breathe new life into a dying or dead franchise while making a quick buck – either by offering a brand new installment of an existing series with geriatric versions of our protagonists still trying to prove their mettle while popping daily doses of Centrum Silver or simply by throwing out everything that was beloved by fans of the original source material and creating an antimatter version of that material from scratch.  Several shows and films we grew up with have been popping up allover the radar with varying levels of success within the past year.  While Stallone was able to deliver a one-two punch last year (technically one of them came out just before 2008 started, but the receipts carried into 2008) with both of his surprisingly well done attempts – Rocky Balboa and Rambo, other properties – like Indiana Jones and “The X-Files” – were received much like one would when they find out for the first time that their horse is lame and would be served better keeping glitter and cotton balls stuck to construction paper.  Same thing has been happening on television.  “90210”?  Back and apparently a hit (I gotta scratch my head on that one).  The new “Knight Rider”?  Dismantled.

The trend continues this year, as three different reboots have already made their way into theaters – Friday the 13^th, Star Trek, and Terminator: Salvation.  I’ve covered the first two on this site already.  For the most part, both of them have proven to be pretty damn good and each one has gone on to make some decent bank at the box office (which, unfortunately, means that the “powers-that-be” will continue to milk this strategy until our children’s children are watching “Re-Lost” and The Bourne Resurrection).

So, how does Salvation measure up?

First off, there was a fair amount of controversy before the movie even completed its first set of dailies.  From script re-writes that had to be halted due to last year’s writers strike to the original ending getting leaked to the film’s star going on a YouTube-captured tirade, Salvation was already at a disadvantage going into production.

As a result, the finished film has its faults.  There are some plot holes that are quite noticeable, especially after you take a moment to think back on the film after the credits start to roll.  The “new” ending feels tacked on, especially if you were able to catch the details of what the original ending was going to be from one of those popular movie sites.  Some character motivations don’t quite make sense.  Our main character and leader of the resistance feels forced into the plot.

Here’s the funny thing – even after giving all of that some serious consideration, I don’t care.  If there’s one great thing McG has done with this new Terminator franchise, it’s giving fans and casual movie-goers two hours of fleshbags vs. machines in a constant whir of non-stop action.  And I had an extraordinarily large amount of fun watching it.

The acting wasn’t bad, either.  Of special note – Anton Yelchin, fresh off his stint piloting a space wessel, does an incredible job channeling Michael Biehn in his performance of Kyle Reese.  That’s not to say that the other actors weren’t as good.  Sam Worthington delivered a solid performance as a man who isn’t what he thinks he is.  Moon Bloodgood (is she a D&D character?) held her own as well.  And you can never go wrong with Michael Ironside in your film.

Then there’s the extra, little nuances that McG added to the film to sweeten the fun.  An uncredited Linda Hamilton lends her voice as Sarah Connor to a couple of key scenes.  John Connor plays a familiar song over a boom box on the highway to draw out a couple of terminator-cycles.  The photograph of Sarah Connor makes a welcome appearance.  The origin of John’s face scar from T2.  And of course, the return of Arnold – the evil T-800 version (with original hairstyle!) – in a brief battle scene.

Oh, and then there’s a pleasant surprise – a Danny Elfman score that actually doesn’t sound anything like any of his other scores.  I watched the movie listening closely to the orchestral tones that accompanied each frame of celluloid.  Not once did I hear any of Elfman’s familiar cues or chord progressions.  In fact, I had to check the closing credits just to make sure I saw the opening credits correctly.  Yup, Danny Elfman did the score for Salvation.  And he managed to compose an impressive collection of companion pieces that actually sounded original.  Well done.

After mixing all of the above ingredients together, Terminator: Salvation ends up being a sum of equal parts crap and awesome.  Well, not really.  All of the elements that are really well done that make the movie fun and exciting end up tipping the balance in favor of being a good summer action flick to watch.  As I said before, even with the obvious problems the movie has, it still didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed it.  I walked out of that theater really looking forward to the next chapter of the war vs. the machines.

Unfortunately, the box office for Terminator: Salvation hasn’t been great, which means that the potential for a sequel looks grim.  And not grim like you’re-the-future-leader-of-the-resistance grim.  No, this is more like we’re-gonna-be-watching-Twitter:The Movie instead-of-original-films-or-even-remakes-or-reboots grim (don’t laugh – a Twitter project is in the works).

In the end, what we’re left with is a Catch-22: if Salvation does well enough at the box office we’ll end up getting another fun sequel.  Maybe two.  But, with that success on top of the success of Star Trek Hollywood gets further validation that reboots work and that’s what we end up seeing for the next fifteen years.  On the other hand… well, actually there is no other hand.  No matter how well Terminator performs Hollywood probably already has it in their head that reboots are a new cash cow and will be milking the teats raw on that concept for quite some time.

Time to go program my TiVo in advance for the “ER” reboot (coming to NBC fall of 2023!)

The Don will be back… and in greater numbers.

If it fell upon you to recommend a game to an avid gamer that was like nothing they had ever played before, could you do it? It’s easy to find games that build upon their predecessors with new features, or boast about a gimmick that makes it stand out in a sea of genre clones. They’re a dime a dozen. But every so often, an amazing thing happens: A company takes a chance on a brand new IP, with fresh characters, distinct gameplay, and a sense of style that binds it all together into a cohesive and compelling product. One such game is Square-Enix’s The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS. 

If you haven’t heard of it, there’s probably a reason for that. The game is just over a year old now (I’m not the timeliest of writers) and its hype has died down. Secondly, it’s on the Nintendo DS, which, for some reason, seems to be an excuse for gamers to write off good games. Well, their loss. 

The World Ends With You (TWEWY henceforth) is set in modern day Shibuya, a bustling crossroads of culture in Tokyo. For the uninitiated, think of it like the Times Square or the Piccadilly Circus of Japan. All the area’s major landmarks are faithfully recreated, and the area’s sub-districts are left in tact, despite some name changing to protect the corporate. The music fits the style, taking a page from the Persona series, and launching into fully vocalized Jpop, an amazing feat for being crammed onto a DS cart. Although, the repetitious nature of a few tracks in particular can be brain-grating. 

Players assume the role of Neku Sakabara, a total hater who wakes up in the street without his memories, a ticking timer burnt into his hand, and a pin (the kind you pin on your jacket) in his hand that lets him read others’ thoughts. It only gets trippier. 

He receives an email on his phone, instructing him to get to the “104” building, or “face erasure.” Neku comes to find out that he has been sucked into a deadly game of cat and mouse – the Reaper’s game – and if these first ten minutes of gameplay sound frantic, I’m here to tell you that the next 15 hours before you finish it don’t ever really let up. 

It’s a shame I can’t go into more detail without ruining things. The story in TWEWY is one of its crowning achievements, unraveling the answers to twists as quickly as new ones are introduced. And if anything is left unanswered, it’s intentional – the end game gives you the opportunity to complete challenges as you shed light on the background of the game. 

The characters give you a reason to do that, too. Despite looking as though they were the rejected designs from the Kingdom Hearts concept book, they’re all very real and very hip. I called Neku a hater, because he begins the story as a typical anti-hero, cursing the world and all the people in it for the sheer fact that they exist. He’s the kind of hero that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, that cliché, emo-tastic character that Square-Enix just can’t seem to escape from. But the mark of a good story is when the characters actually progress, and TWEWY offers that for each character they introduce, whether they play for the good or the bad guys. So, as a word of forewarning, give Neku the chance he deserves; he won’t let you down. 

I should also say the localization team did a bang-up job bringing Shibuya to life in a way that a North American player would expect it to sound, making use of slang and jargon that despite being a little forced at times, really add to the immersion. Players earn “bling” at the end of battles, and the typical RPG- style equipment is aptly named “threads.” The option to run from battle? “Gotta bounce.” It may sound cheesy out of context, but it’s so rare for localization teams to have the opportunity to go the extra mile like that. The text flows from one character to the next in stylish, comic speech bubbles, and the voiced lines have excellent delivery, especially the actor voicing Neku. 

But ya know, as much as I’ve talked up all the previous points, it’s the gameplay itself that inspired my original paragraph about just how unique this game is. The game takes full use of the Nintendo DS, implementing the dual screens and the stylus into the battle system. You control Neku on the bottom with the stylus. Depending on what “pins” you have equipped, you can do anything from scratching at an enemy to set it on fire, tapping the screen to fire lightning bolts, or making quick slashes to bring him in for some melee combat. These are only three of hundreds of combinations. 

That in itself, not so amazing. Novel, but not amazing. So here’s the kicker: while you control Neku on the bottom screen, you are also asked to control Neku’s partner on the top screen using the directional pad. (Or the buttons for us sad lefties out there.) Using the pad/face buttons, you navigate through a series of button presses in order to reach the end of a branching path, hoping to create enough combos to activate the “fusion attack” between Neku and the partner. Additionally, as you combo with the two combatants, a “light puck” passes between them, adding exponential damage as you successfully pass it back and forth. 

Suddenly the fighting system becomes as frantic and fast-paced as Shibuya itself, no doubt a calculated move on the development team’s part. Making that connection kinda blew my mind. 

It certainly takes some getting used to, and I don’t think I ever really got it down to the science that many players probably did. I had to practice a great deal at the beginning, but I found that even in the battles that meant nothing, this insane fighting system was fun, and never grew as tedious as a typical RPG’s battle system tends to do. I never really felt like I had mastered it, which kept me on my toes throughout the entire game, again, unlike a typical RPG. 

But TWEWY is anything but typical. It also has quite a few features that allow you to tailor the game to your experience. You can adjust the difficulty on the fly. On easy, you gain less experience. On hard, item drops increase. If the battle system is overwhelming you, can you set the AI to take over your top screen should you find yourself neglecting it. Your pins gain experience while you have the DS off for up to seven days. If you get game over, you can retry the fight on an easier difficulty. Little things this, that wouldn’t have been necessary, only make you appreciate the game and its ground-breaking approach even more. 

Did I mention that your clothes and pins also have a brand, the popularity of which change as you venture through Shibuya? Or that you can feed your characters food to improve stats? Well, that’s how deep and involved the game is. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea; I’m sure of that. But if you’re tired of the same ol’, same ol’, or if you want a real gaming experience like you haven’t had since the “old days,” (whenever those were for you,) I can’t recommend TWEWY enough. The game will never apologize for itself, and it shouldn’t have to. Everything about it is a fine-tuned product, and you will walk away with what you allow yourself to put into Neku’s very personal journey of trust, friendship, and self-discovery.

In less fancy words, hi! I’m DKM, the latest chunk of fresh meat thrown to the wild masses otherwise known as the awesome Spwug writers and audience. I hope the flavour I bring to the table is to your liking. I’m hearty, robust, smooth, and best of all, 30% less filling!

And now I’m just plain hungry.

At this point, I should probably warn you all what you’re getting into here with me. Y’see, I’m not really a defined (or refined) geek. I don’t stick to one genre of geekiness–oh, no, I dabble all over the board. One minute I’m waxing nostalgic about the glory of the Super NES days and telling kids to get off my lawn; the next, I’m rambling on about rocks, or LARPing, or anime, or that cloud that totally looked like Leonard Nimoy. (It did! It even had the Vulcan salute thing going on!)

I guess you could say my “area of expertise” is in discussing webcomics, if one can indeed be an expert about such things (c’mon, at least let me have my delusions of grandeur here!) There’re over sixty-five comics in my browser’s bookmarks right now, all of which I read and analyze in my spare thinkin’ time. With the number of hours I must spend perusing comics every month, I’d like to think all that reading-type stuff makes me a scholarly master of sequential art…but it probably just proves I have no life. I vote #2. Really, I just love seeing artists thrive on the Internet, free to tell their stories any way they want. With so many comics to rant and rave about, you can bet you’ll be hearing from me on this topic–and, of course, many others–again. And again and again and….

Of course, that’s only when I’m not nattering on about fluffy clouds. (Doesn’t that one look like a bunny with a mohawk?)

Next Episode (and every episode after that): The Legend of DKM: Killer of Time

Welcome to my Geek Journal, now being hosted on Spwug.com! Special thanks to Richard Kim and Donnie Sturges for letting me join. ^^

This week, I’ll be covering (*flips through notes*) a couple movies, a game, and an Internet site that I like.

Movies – Earlier this week, I went and saw Angels & Demons, based on the Dan Brown novel of the same name and starring Tom Hanks. I did enjoy the film, but was a little disappointed that there wasn’t as much puzzle solving as there was in The Da Vinci Code. However, it did make up for it with (slight spoiler warning!) a twist that I wasn’t expecting at all.

This weekend, we continue the month of blockbuster releases with Terminator: Salvation. Current plans are to go see it Saturday, watching T2 beforehand to get into the mood. So far, I’ve heard good and bad things about this fourth installment, but I usually prefer to not pay too much attention to reviews and see things for myself.

Game – A while back, I came across a game by the name of Psychonauts that a roommate had bought. Borrowing it from him, I ended up playing it all the way through within a few days. For the most part, the game is your typical action/adventure/puzzle-solving type, but the story is what kept me playing. You play as Raz, a boy who breaks into a special summer camp for training people with psychic powers. Raz needs to collect all of the Psychic Merit Badges and save the other campers in the short time he has before his parents come pick him up. The game is filled with strange situations and plenty of funny lines. Unfortunately, the game didn’t do very well sales-wise. I had been wanting to go back and replay the game to give myself a chance to try to collect everything that I can, so when I found out it was available on Steam for cheap, I jumped at it. In fact, I started to play it today and almost didn’t get this post done due to getting caught up in it. ^^ It’s a fairly-hefty download (3.75 GB), but it is well worth it. I recommend checking it out.

Internet – The first site I want to talk about is Woot!. “One Day, One Deal” is their tagline and modus operandi, meaning that each day, they’ll have a new deal posted and once it’s gone, it’s gone. The deals are usually really good, even if the item is not, with the price almost always lower than can be found anywhere else. Woot! allows up to three of the posted item to be bought at one time and the shipping is always $5, regardless of the number of items or their size. The item’s description is anything but normal, to include poems and wacky stories about said item. There’s also a daily Wootcast that is usually a song about the day’s item. Every month or so, Woot! will have a special event that they call a “Woot Off”, where instead of doing one item per day, there will be a new item posted each time the current item sells out. Another special occurrence on Woot! is the “Bag of Crap”: This item is sold at the low price of $1 (each, up to three), and the purchaser has no idea what the bag will contain or even what kind of bag it will be until their order is received. It’s a very popular item and usually sells out within minutes of being posted. New items are posted at midnight Central Time (except for Woot Offs, of course). It’s always worth checking out each day.

That’s it for this week’s post, see you next week!

Greetings, Foot Clan!

I originally had another topic in mind for this week’s “Office”, but some rather pleasing news crossed paths with my viewing orbs yesterday that I really wanted to share with those of you who happen to be PS3 owners.

Are you sitting?

Would you like something to drink?

Chips?  Cookie?

No?

Okay, Playstation Threers, here’s the skinny – we don’t have to hide in the shadows feeling like filthy, third-rate citizens anymore (unless you really are a filthy, third-rate citizen – in that case, you go back into those shadows)!  Bethesda, the game company that brought you Fallout 3 has announced this week that those downloadable expansion packs that were originally exclusive to 360 and PC users will no longer be so exclusive.

That’s right PS3 owners – this summer all of the glitch-ridden, bug-addled fun that Microsoft patrons have been enjoying with a large helping of frustration will be ours to pull our hair out happily over as well!

The first of the ex-exclusive packs, Operation Anchorage, will drop in late June.  The Pitt and Broken Steel will follow a few weeks after that.  And, to ensure that Bethesda can hear our cries of anguish loud enough way off in their tower of Fallout cash, they will also make available for download a special patch that will allow users to be able to play the DLC on PS3.

I’m sure absolutely nothing could go wrong there.

But wait – there’s more!  If you act now within the next ten minutes (not really) you’ll also be getting two more, brand new expansion DLC packs to be released later on this year for all Fallout 3 platforms!

Are you following me, camera guy?

The first new DLC pack to come out later this year will be called “Point Lookout” and will offer a brand new swampland area with new quests and items to collect.  Not much else in the way of details, but what else do you need?  You’re in the swamps, Jack!  Lay down some swamp fire!

After “Point Lookout” the “Mothership Zeta” pack will drop.  Remember that *spoilers* alien ship you found crash-landed north of Megaton*end spoilers*?  Yeah, don’t act like you didn’t totally rip that sweet alien firearm off that dead shazbot.  Well, it looks like the mother ship has arrived and they aren’t too happy.  Time to clench tight because you’re going to get probed after they abduct your Happy-Scrappy-Hero-Pup ass.  Hopefully you still have that stolen piece on your person so you can survive being “taken”.

All sarcasm-laden humor aside, I’m really excited about the fact that those of us who own a PS3 don’t have to feel left out anymore when it comes to Fallout 3 content.  Between the three downloads previously only available for Microsoft and the new content that everyone is getting, this should give us a pretty full summer to explore the Wastelands…

…and to gripe and complain repeatedly about how the DLC froze up again.

The Don knows who farted in Vault 101.

Sorry I missed a week, Spwuganoids, but you know how it is, right?

So I was listening to the radio this morning, the Kevin and Bean show in particular, and their movie guy, Ralph, was doing one of his infamous rants. That’s not the subject of my entry at all. My inspiration actually comes from the fact while launching into his shpiel, he totally botched a pretty good quote – “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

That’s when I remembered that I actually have a little black book in my drawer where I document quotes that I find particularly interesting, moving, or inspirational. These quotes come from all forms of media – songs, games, movies, books, authors; a lot of people have said, written, and sang a  lot of interesting things in their lives.  Unfortunately, some spoken context is often lost when reduced to sheer text, but I thought I’d share some of my favorites, and maybe inspire some of you to keep your own little black books of quotes. (Or maybe you can use a different color, I’m sure some of you have black books for different purposes altogether.)

Yes, it’s a little nerdy to find yourself scribbling down a quotation, trying to retain accuracy, but that’s supposed to be the audience here, right? Feel free to hit the comments section with your own favorites.

This one is from an old SNES game called Soul Blazer, a game that changed my life as a kid. This quote has helped me deal with many-a-passing: “Like a good night’s sleep comes after a day of hard work, good rest comes after an honest life.” The line is spoken by the ghost of a dog, who died defending the woodland creatures of the world.  Very deep for an SNES era localization.

“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.” – Lord Henry Wotton, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

This one requires a little context. It’s from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, a book I recommend you never, ever touch. Quentin’s father is giving him a gift, a pocket watch. The quote itself is very indicative of the times we live in, despite being written in the early 20^th century: “I give it to you not so that you may remember time, but so that you ma y forget it now and then, and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it.”

Here’s a doozy. It comes from Hero, a badass movie you should all go see, like, right now.

“Swordsmanship’s first achievement is the unity of man and sword. One this unity is attained, even a blade of grass can be used as a weapon. The second achievement is when the sword exists in one’s heart, but is absent from one’s hand. One could strike an enemy 100 paces away with his bare hands.  Swordsmanship’s ultimate achievement is the absence of the sword from both hand and heart. The swordsman is at peace with the rest of the world.”

Finally, one I think we can all appreciate: “The internet? What the fuck is the internet?” Jay, from Jay and Jay Silent Bob Strike Back. 

I was speaking to a coworker today who had just gotten an Xbox Live account, and when I commented to her that I’d seen it, she wondered how I knew. The answer was simple: “I saw you in a party with [another person on my friends list], and it looked just like you! Who else would it be?” It then hit me that my own avatar looked like me, and it didn’t stop there, either.

Ultimately, it seems like in every game in which you get a decent amount of creative control over what your character looks like, the first thing I do is attempt to model myself. Given that it’s my first time using the system, it usually doesn’t turn out all that well, but subsequent revisions get me something close to what I think I look like (I not going to lie; I’m always slightly surprised that I don’t look exactly like my own mental image. I have a defined chin in my own mind.) Sure, I can play with the system later and start creating people / freaks of genetic tampering for fun, the the first time I play, it’s with myself. Wait, that sounds horrible. I mean, as myself.

Part of it lies in the way I play in-depth roleplaying games like Fallout 3. The first time, I’ll play as myself, giving natural answers and letting my conscience be the guide. Frequently this ends up in the “goody-two shoes” camp, because I’d much rather talk my way out of a jam than shoot, and I more or less meander up the path of goodness (about halfway through, I usually decide that violence is the answer to most arguments, but I at least try starting things in a civilized manner). After that, I’ll play the depraved route just for kicks to see how terrible the game lets me be. After that, if I’m still interested, I’ll start doing gimmick runs, doing the weird, offbeat things and exploring character paths that I hadn’t considered before. The important thing here is that for the first time through, I’m trying to stay true to myself and to my decisions. Don’t shoot the sheriff, don’t wipe out the ghouls, but don’t take crap from the slavers either. Can’t we all just… leave each other alone for five seconds? No? *BLAM*

The thing of it is, and the real reason I’m writing this, is that I know I’m not alone. When the Wii first came out, message boards were abuzz with people posting Miis back and forth to each other, stocking up on their friends. In fact, when my friend’s stepparents got a Wii for Christmas last year, the very first thing they did (after shoving all the furniture out of the way and recruiting me to hook them up with batteries) was hold a Mii-fest in which they made avatars resembling everyone in the family. Of course, nobody got to make their own Mii, leading to some fun times. (“Don’t give me that hair.” “That’s the hair that looks most like yours.” “No, you’re making me look like a moron.” “Hey, it’s not my fault you have moron hair.” *fighting ensues*)

That’s not limited to the happy non-gaming gamers, either. When Microsoft unveiled their new avatars, people whined and moaned about their systems getting kiddified, then went and did it anyway. I only see a few folks who go out of their way to make a crazy-looking persona for their 360; most avatars are of people who look like people. It isn’t just avatars; my first Sims, my first The Movies actor (he died before I invented color film, so I had to plastic surgerize a different actor into being me when I had the technology… How’s THAT for extreme self-obsession?), my first Fallout 3 character, any number of characters you can throw a goatee and glasses on get my face on them when I first send them out into the world… Where does this come from? Why do I have to star in my adventures? Am I really so conceited that every story has to involve myself, like those video storybooks you can get with little [insert name here] fighting off the Martians and saving Christmas?

I can’t be the only person who does this, though. Speak, you denizens of the Spwugbase! Share your addictions to putting your own mug on your virtual selves! I leave you now with a taste of my disease…

About the author: Mike Meeker recently made a bet and has to shave his beard off. He hasn’t seen his bare chin in six years. He’s kind of worried about it.

The neat thing about having an actual career, as opposed to just a job, is that you get to network with people to expand the scope of the application of your abilities. That may sound like a load of horse pucky, but it’ll make sense when it actually happens to you, I swear. Coincidentally, it also explains what I’m doing here.

You can call me Mike, because that’s my name today, and like Scott and Jennifer a few weeks ago, I’m a coworker of sorts with Richard Kim. That’s what led to him approaching me after a meeting and asking if I wanted to contribute to this site. At first, I didn’t think I had any particular special knowledge of “geek culture” that wasn’t already covered, so I didn’t have any idea of what to contribute, but he asserted that I probably had something worth reading about within me (and not in a medical journal sense, either). I had just had lunch and was -10 to Charm at the time, so I agreed.

My focus tends to be in video games, naturally, and literature. Let’s all see if I have something fascinating to contribute. Hope to keep seeing you here!

Greetings, Sectaurs!

I want to preface this week’s installment of “Office” with a single statement:

I am a Star Wars fan.

Ever since I was taken to see the first film back in 1977 at the age of three, I’ve been a fan.  That’s not to say that I didn’t love other science fiction, because it was through Star Wars that I became a full-on embracer of all things sci-fi.  I have a passion for almost every aspect of science fiction – time travel, parallel worlds, clones, space exploration, and so on.  You name it – if it exists in the realm of science fiction, my interest is piqued.

By that extension, I have grown to love many other movies, novels, comic books, television shows, and games that exist within the realm of sci-fi.  “Automan”, “Fringe”, The Matrix, The Last Starfighter, Dayworld, Ender’s Game, various comic books – my enjoyment of each of these is an example of my passion for science fiction.

That enjoyment even extends to Star Trek.

Now, I’ve never been a Trekkie or a Trekker, but I’ve enjoyed and even loved many of the movies and television shows that have come across my viewholes for the past several years.  Hell, my favorite Trek film of all time is The Wrath of Khan.  I find myself popping that into the player about as often as I would The Empire Strikes Back.

Now, despite the fact that my being a Star Wars fan may divide some people on whether or not my review of the new film is a fair one, it is important that it is taken into account with what I’m about to say.

I loved the new Star Trek.

I know there’s quite a bit of controversy right now amongst the true Trekkies Trekkers Star Trek fans over this film.  I’m not going to get into that here.  I just want to explain why I loved this movie enough that I saw it twice in the theater.

To put it short and sweet, this movie made me feel like the Star Wars prequels should have – like a kid grinning from ear to ear as he embarks on a galactic adventure of epic proportions while it unfolds across a large movie screen.

I think J.J. Abrams did an amazing job here, especially with a script that wasn’t all that great to begin with.  He took a franchise that was slowly being strangled to death by Rick Berman and infused it with fresh life (if that isn’t one of the most iconic themes of science fiction, I don’t know what is).

He even did his homework.  I watched Khan with my wife and some friends before we went to see the new film, and I found that Abrams must have studied that film specifically – a lot of his cues come from the second film in the series. 

His note-taking didn’t stop there either.  He managed to make references to “The Next Generation” as well as “Enterprise”.  A lot of people think that Abrams just brushed aside all of the established Trek canon just so he could do a reboot.  Not true.  He was meticulous in how he inserted all sorts of little nods and homages to what had already been laid down before.  From the mention of Captain Archer to the Kobayashi Maru test to the acknowledgment that Spock had become an ambassador to the Romulans, Abrams has proven that he understood what all the fans loved and embraced it just as much as they did.  He also knew that some feathers needed to be ruffled in order to rescue the ship from being placed in moth balls.

The result?  A fun and refreshing marriage of fan service mixed with bold and new possibilities.

And the cast… holy crap are they impressive.  Chris Pine manages to capture the essence of Kirk without evoking The Shat.  He’s got the charisma, charm, and cunning down.  Zachary Quinto proves that he can do more than play a psychotic power thief.  His Spock is on par with Nimoy.  Karl Urban manages to steal every scene he is in as he channels the ectoplasm of DeForest Kelley through his performance.  Simon Pegg plays Scotty the way only Pegg could, and he makes the character shine.  Finally, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, and Zoe Saldana each bring their own energy to their characters (Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura respectively), while at the same time respecting the essence of those characters.

The charisma and chemistry of this cast alone makes this a strong film.  The best part is that each character is actually given a significant role in the movie, something the original television show or even the previous films had a hard time juggling.  Each of the main bridge crew is important, and they each get at least one moment to stand out.

There’s certainly plenty for them to do.  Sure – the plot may be a little weak, and you may notice that it does seem to resemble the basic premise of another Trek film, but Abrams manages to throw so much action and adventure at you that you’re having way too much fun to notice until the credits start rolling.  And by that point you don’t care, because you just got off of one of the most thrilling, enjoyable space adventures to come through theaters in a long time.

At least, that’s the feeling I got after seeing the film the first time.  And I enjoyed it so much that I had to go back for seconds.  That’s why I think Abrams got it right – he managed to capture the spirit of what made Star Trek so much fun back during the original series and during the early films (except The Motion Picture – boooring) and presented it to the fans as his way to show his love of the franchise, as well as offer the fans a new ongoing adventure to embark on.  Unfortunately, most of the die-hards are too busy picking apart every little continuity gaffe and contradiction to enjoy the essence behind what made them fans in the first place.

As for me, this film has done something I once thought impossible.  It certainly is an incredible feat – Star Trek almost turned me into a Trekkie Trekker guy who loves Star Trek enough to become part of its fandom.  It might not even take much more to give me that final push that will send me over to the Trek side.  I mean, look what it made me do:

I bought the whole set of Burger King Trek glasses!  I haven’t done anything like that since BK offered Return of the Jedi glasses back in ’83.

See?  I told you my being a Star Wars fan would come into play.  Or is that an ex-Star Wars fan?

The Don is dead, Jim.  Dead sexy, that is.