Writing Moment

This morning, I had a remarkable dream, and I was inspired, not to write it down, but to use a clue given in the dream to write a scene that I had been struggling with in my novel. I try to aim for regular scenes that genuinely have an emotional impact on the reader, and so I try to find things that have a genuine impact on me as a writer. I think that reading a book should be an experience that offers more than just a "that was cool" reaction: it should strike the reader on a deep emotional level and offer him the opportunity to change his way of seeing the world, as though he himself had experienced the events of the book. In that way, I think reading a book can be as moving as real life. But I've heard this before, and it's true: if the writer doesn't feel anything while writing it, the reader doesn't feel anything when reading it.

And so I made the change to the scene in my head, and it felt right, so I got up, turned my computer on, and wrote it. And as I was typing the final words, I was overcome with emotion, I sobbed aloud, and tears ran down my face. It was the first time I had driven myself to the point of tears in a story.

I don't know if I'll even use the scene in the final draft of the novel, since it's still a while before I connect where the novel is now to that point, so things might be different by then. I do have the feeling that it will still be there in some way; I was genuinely heartbroken by characters that exist only in my imagination.

And that was remarkable.

Oh Shit

Sony has lost more than three billion dollars on the PS3.

Seriously, that sucks.

Sorry for the language to everyone below 18 and/or living in Utah.

I know it's fairly common for games companies to lose money on their consoles, and we've known the PS3 is being sold well below cost ever since it first came out, but considering how badly the PS3 is being WTF PWNED in the console wars by the Wii, this isn't good news.

McCain Lets It Slip

Most of the blind puppets of the coporate and government-controlled media meekly swallow what they are fed: that there is no Illuminati. They think the world is not run by powerful individuals and clandestine groups who control trillions of dollars in assets and guide the course of countries. But John McCain is getting on in years, and he has, I'm afraid, let it slip that Vladimir Putin also rules Germany:




Some people would call this evidence that John McCain is a senile old coot. I call it evidence that John McCain knows much more about who really runs the world than he's letting on.

Because he IS the Mother Fucking MAN

http://williamgibsonboard.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2866012481/m/5401073773?r=4531033383#4531033383

Just... bask, minions. Bask.

Cyberpunk Radio

"Disregard the mainstream: media distorted." Not exactly original, but a pretty good line from a reggae/rap thing that was also in the podcast.

When I first checked out the Cyberpunk Radio SF podcast on iTunes, I wasn't very impressed. The first one that it played was episode 104, which started with a mashup of Obama's speeches counterpointed against the ravings of his minister. On that note, I have only to loosely quote Socrates when I say that I disapprove of his warmongering and his discontent. That was followed by some shitty pseudo-noise that I suppose was supposed to sound unreal and cool, followed by crappy rap. Overall, the radio seems to be a mix of music, soundbyte mashups, and dystopian-slanted rants about modern news and changes.

I tried episode 103, which set off with an absolutely awesome "story" about the cyborg insects that the military is building for remote control. It was ... well, it was cyberpunk. The voice was mildly distorted to make it more cyberpunky, and it used expressions like, "Do you know what this really means, meat-puppets?" and "this is the data-stream." But it followed that with a music choice with a genre I couldn't even begin to explain, a pseudo-blues, pseudo-punk piece of shit with some theme about beer and a deadbeat dad. Talk about a buzzkill. Next came a soundbite mashup about Bush's warmongering and nanobots. THEN another bit of awesome: mixing in Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" with cyberpunk messages advertising this radio, topped off with some weird techno. It was fucking cool.

Final word? No final word yet. But final link: http://www.mental-escher.net/cyberpunkradio/

Enjoy the data-stream, chipheads.

Also, where credit is due: a comment on a post on Kawaika's blog. A comment from one of the guys involved, apparently. When I said your music was sometimes shit, bro... well, actually, it was. Them's the breaks.

Something completely different: Maybe there's some truth to the dire warnings about a future of computer uprisings. It looks like laser printers are illegally downloading Iron Man (but not really; the university just rigged their IPs to make it look that way). Big Brother is watching you. And he's also watching your printer.

George Carlin is dead

Yep. I reckon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_en_tv/obit_george_carlin

Train Man (Densha Otoko)

Yatta!

Everyone knows that I'm not a huge otaku (the Japanese word for nerd). Most anime are more or less passe for me, and I don't read manga or fantasize about catgirls. That being said, I have a movie recommendation for you that I'm putting out there with my absolute stamp of approval. It's been a long time since I saw a movie that wasn't recommended to me by anyone (unless you count Netflix) and truly enjoyed it, but this one really grabbed my heart and held it tightly in its two little hands. In a good way.

The movie's premise is that a complete otaku is smitten with a beautiful woman on the train. When a drunk starts bothering her, our hero stands up for her (although very awkwardly) and she asks for his address. Having gone his entire 22 years without having a girlfriend (and, one can only assume, hardly talking to girls at all), our hero turns to the best source of information he can get: 2chan (yes, although it's not named in the movie, the special features explain that it was indeed 2chan, the famous Japanese mega-internet forum). A colorful gang of internet misfits start giving him advice, including a married couple who have grown apart, a teenage shut-in, a nurse holding on to a long-lost love, and (most importantly) a scene-stealing trio of uber-otaku who practically live in a manga cafe. Guided by this questionable bunch of love 'experts,' can our young hero pursue the love of his life? Or is she out of his reach?

This movie's characters are endearing, the story is fun yet poignant, and ... well, I really can't gush about it enough. As a super-nerd, I couldn't help but pull for our awkward young hero as he takes his brave steps into the world of love. It's in Japanese with English subtitles, of course, although those of you with an allergy to reading while watching a movie should still bear through it, because this movie is a treat!

What are you waiting for? Here I am, your friendly blogging geek, telling you to go out there and get a movie about a geek! So go do it!

There's also a commentary track by an American and two Japanese experts on otaku culture. I haven't listened to it, but I look forward to doing so soon!

*****POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW*****
You have been warned. You may return to reading after the sirens stop.

Final word: The last scene of the movie might confuse some viewers, because it seems to suggest (or did to me) that the whole movie might have just been a fantasy. Don't worry; if you watch to the end of the credits, you'll see another scene which makes it clear that the movie did happen; the last scene was just a flashback showing you that the two characters were always closer than they thought.

And don't worry; I'll be back to writing other things than just film reviews soon. This movie really fit in so well with my themes and interests that I just had to share it with you!

eXistenZ

What happens when you get a video gamer to write a screenplay? Although I can hardly be sure that this movie was written by a video gamer, it certainly feels like it. The dialogue is awful, the characters are flat, and the premise is a combination of thought-provoking and silly.

First, the bad: the props are ridiculous. The special effects are weak. The science behind it all is nonexistent. Don't even try to figure out the logic behind it all; trying to match real world logic to this movie is like trying to hook up an American toaster to a European electrical socket.

Now, the good. Yes, it does have Jude Law in it, although he doesn't really have much to do. It also kept me thinking. I did have to be quite generous with my interpretation and extrapolation, but all in all, this film can be an excellent way to get an interesting conversation going among a good bunch of people, and for that alone I'd suggest it.

The basic plot, such as there is, involves a video-game designer and the man who ends up having to protect her from an anti-video game conspiracy. You see, video games are so real in this movie that some people want to destroy them outright, before they destroy real life with their simulated reality. You'll be able to guess most of the plot twists long before they happen, but that's fine if it makes you feel clever, as it did me. Although that's a little like feeling uber after beating an 8 year old in CounterStrike. I constantly had the feeling that the movie was written by a kid who was 15, tops. You'll know what I mean when you watch a particularly awkward love scene between the two main characters in which the game compels them to kiss! Saucy!

At the end of the movie, my reaction was, "Yeah, yeah, all right. I get it already." There are echoes of The Matrix here, but also a few original ideas, and some of the scenes are downright thought-inducing. Watch for Ian Holm speaking Hungarian badly, and the Hungarian word "isten" in the title of the film, relates to one of the film's themes: that technology allows us to be gods of our own worlds. Wikipedia agrees with me.