See what I mean? A decline. Its prime time is done. Time to move on; however, being the nice guy as I am. Here’s a poll for you guys! (Please answer truthfully)

First recap of going to Boston, I know it’s been a while, but I can say what I remember. On Friday, I skipped my classes to go to Boston, and met up with a friend’s friend to drop off my stuff to pick it up later. Long story short, I messed up somewhat by taking the Green B line not the E line cause I was behind the trolley, I should say, running with my bags trying to get on and it was at an angle, so on and so forth. When I got to PAX, I just made it at 12:50 or so, and the place opened at 2pm. Unfortunately, the line was enormous. I stood there within 3 folds of hundreds of people, thought I was in a good spot when I looked behind me. When we got to walk, I was nearing an entrance, and what do I see there? Literally about 12 more folds, and couple thousands of people. Not an overstatement. The whole thing took about 10 minutes to walk at a casual place.  I got finally up to the main Keynote which was given by Wil Wheaton -  of  Flubber, Stand by Me, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, few Teen Titans episodes, as well as other voices in cartoons such as Ben 10 (or so Wikipedia states) – with a theme of “Welcome Home.” It’s all because out side of small conventions, and NYCC, Northeast does not have a geek-convention. Nextfest and Digital Life both died ~ 2006. But I digress, it was okay I suppose but it actually made me feel like I can’t connect with these guys. I’m all geek, by all means, but he made it seem as if it was all outcasts and rejects grouping. I’m by far not a social outcast. Anyway moving on.

Friday I went to some Panels such as Journalists vs Developers: The Ultimate Grudge Match – a somewhat funny meeting/Q&A from both sides sitting next to each other blaming each other for commercial failures. Wired, Harmonix, and G4 made appearance as the panelists. Also seen Puppet Masters – The Not So Invisible Hands of Video Game PR. This was a panel with Naughty Dog, Atlus, Owner of Tinsley PR and a few more.  They covered everything from hating Metacritic, buying and selling of souls, controlling information leaks, and how they view various small companies and websites. Then I played games like Splinter Cell: Conviction, Bioshock 2 in 3D (glasses TV and everything), few other games etc. Went outside to eat at this awesome Greek place which really made me miss NYC cause walking into any restaurant and finding awesome food just doesn’t happen in Worcester. I went back to PAX where I also caught Friday Night Concerts with The Protomen, Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, and finally MC Frontalot which rotated. It was Awesome. To finish the day off I was walking to the open tabletop area where I played Settlers of Catan 6 player (for everyone who hasn’t played this, BUY IT… I got Wood for Sheep), with Jerry Holkins and 4 other guys. At approx. 10 I had to leave and at about 10:12 I came to get my bags. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t come back yet. I had to wait in below 0C weather (I know cause the puddle next to me froze as I stood there, I checked with my foot) for about an hour. Just when I started walking to the place I was going to stay at, he came back. Still needed to wait 15 min, but at least I got my stuff. Then I went to NorthEastern U where I stayed over the weekend.

Saturday, to say the least, I wanted to stay in bed. NEU has a LOT better beds than in my college, even though I got one of the best beds on my floor. The showers are horrible though, if I take a bottle of water and hold it over my head I’ll get more pressure – pathetic! Anyway, I came to PAX a bit late, not too late as it started at 10. I managed to catch the following panels: Penny Arcade Make a Strip, Naughty Dog LIVE – Game Design with the Dogs, Journal Frome the Plague Year: Big Huge Barely Makes It, Saturday Night Concerts ( Video Game Orchestra only). Penny Arcade was amazing and you really missed out, there probably are recordings on youtube from PAX10, and I suggest watching it but one may find them a bit boring as just sitting and watching an hour event isn’t as great as being there Live. Naughty Dog took their hit from few years back, Uncharted, and made a 3.5 Level since there is a weird transition between chapters 3 and 4, and they let the audience contribute to a pre-made design. It was fun, and watching these guys make a full 40+ minute game session was quite interesting. Moving on, Big Huge, it was quite an experience for these guys. Few friends made a game dev that exploded then imploded, came few hours-nigh to closing to be saved by a retired baseball player and to be bought by EA. The founder said during the “implosion” part that the worst day of his entire life was when he had to lay off people, many of which were his friends. Saturday Night Concerts, from what I seen went over superbly and I recommend listening to some of VGO’s work for it’s fantastic. That day I returned early because I felt bad for limiting my friend’s weekend. So we spent some time together and had a not-so-nice trip to Wendy’s where we came in when it was closing and they refused to serve beef. Sure Chicken Nuggets are good, but I need my #2 (and don’t even ask me what it is, cause I don’t remember, that’s what I get for years now). Ended up watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia through the night before sleep. Quite relaxing, PAX is somewhat stressful with all the running.

Sunday was somewhat different. I went to Blamination ALIVE: With Kris (Straub) and Scott (Kurtz) – guys who do Chainsawsuit and PVP respectively. It was fine, not as great as PA guys, but there had their moments. Then I went to So You Want to Get Into the Game Industry panel which was alright – in fact I don’t quite remember it! Then we went to Second Penny Arcade Panel, which was too many things -in a good way. From the beginning we knew it was going to be something worthwhile.  The Bass on the system made your spleen move and pancreas turn… quite a spectacle. One of the most memorable moments was the arm-wrestling request from a fan. Other good moments included stories, funnies, and a guy who gave them some binder with some cards, and they gave the guy back a Core i7 processor – which he immediately donated to Child’s Play, a charity which gives games to play to children in hospitals. Moving on with Sunday, I had to get my stuff back so I missed half of Sunday PAX because the train back was around 6pm. A few friends of mine who were returning with me (Sunday tickets) scheduled the leave. We literally almost did NOT make it. My friend and I made it back within 2 minutes before the train arrived and left. Too much of a close call than I like – but that’s what makes stories engaging. Also, I lost my umbrella that day.

Stuff I forgot to mention and am too lazy to put back or don’t remember when they happened:

- I got to meet with Kris Straub and chat for good 10 minutes, not a huge fan of Scott though, so I didn’t talk to me much either – the picture shows this.

- I also met up with MC Frontalot on Friday and Saturday. Basic chat, asked him when he’s playing at NYC and it’ll b after his new CD tour which ends with Pittsburgh around May 21st. He agreed to sign some stuff including a small poster. Chill guy, really.

- Played some more games, got free stuff, including 3 shirts, Magic cards (Which I don’t play), got 4 business cards which are gonna come in handy in near future.

And that sums my weekend up. Sorry if it’s lengthy and you guys don’t care for it.

Now for pics (sorry I don’t have many! There are a few saved on my phone so I will add them another time):

Today, I saw Alice in Wonderland. Here’s the skinny:

Loved: The actors. The cast wasn’t perfect, and I think the girl who played Alice is ugly only to turn decent mid-movie. I have no idea how it happened, but her face annoyed me. Looking at an ugly face isn’t something you want to look at for 2 hours. Anyway, a lot of exaggeration was done in acting of supportive characters which was a nice change. In addition, the special effects were really nicely done, kudos to the team. The cat was somewhat disappointing, as was the mad-hatter. Both were just a bit too off from the book; not asking for a make over, just more quirky looking.

Meh’d: The art, though it didn’t go far enough, if you saw it then you must have seen that the backgrounds were often just gradients, it’s a big budget movie so there is no need to cut back on matte painting in the back. The acting was pretty well done overall, but too many times did the actors not have an apathetic look upon their face. I mean ok, it was all done on green screen but at least make some effort to it; and if it doesn’t look great, hey I’d rather laugh in a theatre than sit through another Natalie Portman’s Amidala scene – talk about emotionless.

Hated: 3D. There I said it. Not to say I hate the idea of 3D, but rather what 3D has done to movies. It comes from my tendency to look around when watching movies. I seldom look at the character that’s talking because hey, I know who is talking by their voice. 3D punishes your eyes for trying to focus on something that is not in focus. Looking away will make your head hurt, your eyes sting, and well, it’s just not pleasant. How would you like to live your life where someone would tell you where to look and if you looked away that someone would throw alcohol in your eyes? Well, that’s how it feels. Anyway, another thing I hate is laziness. From time to time, I have no idea if it was a time constraint, or what, but backgrounds are

Either way, I came to see it with low expectations. Rotten Tomatoes said it was eh, my friends said it was eh. I came thinking it was eh, and what do you know, the person I went with and I were pleasantly surprised. It was not a bad movie. Sure in retrospect it has a lot of questionable decisions, and quirks that annoyed me, but overall, I’m glad I saw it.

Would I recommend it to others? Yeah, no harm done… all but the eye brows. Please, get it out of my head!

In conclusion, today was a good day, first one in a while. I hope more like these will come! I just have 3 more days of vacations. And then 7 more weeks of grueling work.

I could keep this short, but then I feel like I am keeping things hidden. I could write it all out but I promised some terms of privacy on this blog and I intend to keep them hidden. So I shall make a short post here and a protected and extended, the password for it will be the old password that was from ~Oct of last year for those who remember or had it and wish to ask for it. No biggie.

So now, for the shortened message:

School is over for a week, in about 12 hours I will be back in the greatest city in the world. Sorry for the neglecting, but I was just too busy despite what time I had from time to time. Like the Friday (last day of the term) I had to wake up at 8am, had a demonstration at 10:15, then a study session at 11am, exam at 12, then I had to redo one of my homework assignments between 1pm and 3pm where I had a class followed by a 3 hour lab I managed to rush through in 2 hours. I had my breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 8pm. Now imagine this kind of days every second day for about 2 weeks. Not something I like to experience again. Well, it’s over… for now.

Peace out,

myself.

However, there is always time to sit down at 4:30am, and write something that will keep me sane when I need it.

So to the request:

District 9 was a good movie. Definitely a masterpiece in its own right. However, I do not feel that symbolism is needed much to what movie has to offer. Just like with classics, the interpretation should be up to the reader or the writer, not a teacher in middle or high school who claim “scholars agree” on their answer. A thousand people saying 1+1 = 3 will not make it so. Anyway, back to District 9. It definitely tried to show the conditions of less fortunate people who started off as oppressed and then bullied into containment areas that are “better” but are rather strategically easier to patrol and guard.I feel the movie didn’t have a lot of influence over me nor did it struck much emotion. Then again while watching it I had my head wrapped with worry about my ex who was most probably sick, dehydrated and the heat made her feel like crap. Multiple times I told her to leave, get a refund or something and just go home, but she wouldn’t have it. Thus I took her home after. Anyway, no more tangents. The movie just didn’t struck so much as something revolutionary. There are movies which evoke emotion in people who watch it. This one, however, was somewhat empty and heartless. The story of a man who lost everything he had because of his sacrifice which was conveyed in him becoming one of the lower classes is in a way just a fancy way of saying: upper-middle class helps upper class, once he becomes lower class he sees the conditions and how upper class is wrong about everything. That being said, the movie loses its luster. In fact, it’s quite generic – which is why I felt its lack of heart despite how well the movie was made.

Bananas better than apples. Well let’s break it down. Hygiene-wise, bananas all the way as apples have all kinds of stuff put on them that keeps bugs from going near them. Taste, I gotta go with apples on this one. Apples are much more juicy, and just taste less sweet. Nutrition – on the pro side:  lower cholesterol level, decrease cancer risk in multiple areas, and help keep you skinny. On the con side apples help prevent dementia, which is fun.  Bananas also keep cancer from appearing, may help prevent kidney stones, and high blood pressure, they got vitamins and help replenish electrolytes. Other uses for apples include pies and cyders, as for bananas, this includes paper and some textiles. So while I like apples more, being as I had kidney problems multiple times, I gotta go with bananas!

Preference of my offspring. I could go on and on about this one. So I won’t. But basically, allow me to summarize what I thought of: A daughter first = more meals in the long run, someone else to help with cleaning, better at school means example for younger children. On the bad side she can end up slutty and a poor example for the other kids, can get pregnant and become a huge money sink that ruins the plans for the entire family in near future. A son first = less money spending since males are more likely to get a job, keeps the name of the family. Cons include may end up stupid and poor example, as well as males are more likely, due to peer pressure, to f’ up and go to jail etc. So in the long run not too much of a financial risk. That’s my outlook on the pros and cons. Sorry that I have a somewhat conservative outlook, but if things worked for thousands of years, why change things now?

Main form of transportation will be something of a car. Think about it, we rode horses, we rode bicycles, we drove carriages then cars. Either way, it will always be something like that. With how much our infrastructure is based on cars we are locked into this technology. One problem Britain has is that they were made for carriages, not cars and trucks  and buses are a major problem. Too many thin roads and alleys so the streets are packed with cars with a lot of traffic in older areas. United States is too locked in on car-based infrastructure. Anything we make from this day forth is pretty much car-based to keep the infrastructure costs minimum. Hence why smart car is still a car. So are hybrids etc. Like clothing, no matter how much we play around with them a shirt will need a hole for the head. We can go and make a poncho or some robe, but nevertheless, we can’t change what we are like, thus we’re locked in on our body types, no fast evolution for us unfortunately. Anyway, so that’s the answer. Planes will exist, cars will exist, trains may end up finding a way to cross the oceans, but other than that, we can’t even use tunnels due to plate tectonics even if we wanted to. So embrace what we have, and hope that the future inventions will not revolutionize transportation so much that it will cost many countries impossible amount of money to fix their infrastructures. Here’s to the future!

Btw, the title is a song. It’s cool in the first half, but then goes blah half way through. Pity.