Stepping in for a brief moment

Reader, let me tell you. The world is a dangerous place. One day you're still thinking of all the things you should be posting about and then some devil rears it's head and says "You have to earn for a living, puny human! Mwahaha." and then you have to work like a crazy person.

I've had a few escapes this year, but they were brief moments where I could breathe and go "ooohhh, I can use the keyboard of my laptop for things other than work..." But usually by that time, my brain is so fried that all sense of comprehension flies out the window and I end up staring dumbly at the computer screen with, maybe, a little bit of drool dripping off my chin.

Then I drag my carcass to the xbox and play games that I don't have to think in all that much. Like Brink. I'm probably the only person who likes it even if its AI drives me insane. Or Far Cry 3 - South African villain, ftw! Ahem. Well, not really. We don't like villains. Refer to the 'some devil' reference above. But at least the accent is there... Or I stay at my laptop and play Evil Genius and lose hours upon hours. Or Seven Kingdoms - same thing. Or Harvest Moon - I have that wench's heart going pink but I'm more worried about my crop than feeding her rice cakes the whole friggin time!

 Ahem... now where was I? Ah yes, the moments of clarity that turns into gooey brains and pointless gaming. But is gaming really pointless, do I ask you? Especially when games ask questions about life, or asks us specifically how far is too far gone to return? Is it pointless when you know you want the good ending, but for things to make sense, it just really can't? What a conundrum!

 Brain dead living also sometimes means staring blankly at a screen that is showing moving pictures with people talking and not acting like the fourth wall exists. Through this means I've seen Khan be seriously creepy and the actor playing Kirk (a character I loathe) giving such an amazing performance that I was ready to cry with him (I shall neither confirm nor deny whether I actually succumbed to this notion). And Spock being awesome... And I saw Superman cause a ton of collateral damage and the people of the Daily Planet just having the worst luck with falling concrete and an amazing-looking Clark Kent. No muscle padding needed in the blue suit, no sir. He reminds me terribly of Christopher Reeve...

And what else... hm. Agends of Shield. Walking dead. A little bit of Downton Abbey. Game of Thrones - Rains of Castamere pops into my head the MOMENT I thought of the title. Uhm.

So I have been keeping my mind topped up even if I haven't emptied it on anything bloggish.

But I felt that now, two days away from NaNoWriMo - yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again - I should show my face. To remind people that this notion of writing like a crazy person for a month - come hell or high water - exists to give one the opportunity to feel like you've emptied yourself, wrote something that might be utter garbage in the end, but hell now you can't say "one day I would like to write a story". You sat down and you sunk your teeth into it.

So as a recap, what is NaNoWriMo?

Well, first it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Only now it's an international thing where over two-hundred thousand (it has hit over three-hundred thousand at least once) people all over the world, from all walks of life, make the commitment to start writing a story, starting on the 1st of November and hitting fifty-thousand words at the end of the month. The stories written - on paper, laptop, phone, typewriter, whatever - aren't open to the public to read. Your story is your story and you're the only one who has you're story. Only when you're writing with a 50 000 word count, some might not be inclined to write you're but rather 'you are' seeing as that makes two words instead of one.

But back to the point. It's (it is) your story and it doesn't (does not) get taken from you because listing your number of words on the site is all about your own honesty. So that golden piece of writing can be anything you want it to be and can become anything you want it to be. There are quite a few books that have been published by authors who used nanowrimo as a place to write their first draft. It's helped people write dissertations, non-fiction, fanfiction and stuff hardly worthy of using as toilet paper. The point is that you're writing. You're actually writing. And fifty-thousand words? That's three pages a day. One-thousand six hundred and sixty-six words a day. You'd be surprised how surprisingly easy it can be to chuck out that many words.

You'll notice that we're talking about words. Not content. Quantity. Not quality. The reason for this is we don't want there to be any evil editors standing in the way telling you your writing is shite. Frankly, it's SUPPOSED to be. One thing people don't always understand is that the good story you might read somewhere didn't start the way it ended up. The words that it took to get to that final published strips of tree were infinitely more than what the ink on the page suggests. It is the proverbial block of marble from which a statue is chiseled. No marble; no statue. No copious amounts of writing, no book.

That's what nanowrimo provides its participants: the place to write up a storm of words that make up the proverbial marble. What you make of that is later's worry. Here you can write your space opera, your self-insert into Lord of the Rings where you tell Gandalf that flying is much faster than walking, your crime novel full of the type of gore that would make others cringe, or your romance novel with scenes that would make EL James blush. It's the opportunity just to have silly fun with a group of people who're probably just as high on life (but more likely caffeine and sugar) as you are.

This is my eighth time participating in nanowrimo. I did not "win" every year. I've gotten stuck at ten thousand the one year and that was after I had managed to make the target the year before. But it's not about winning or losing even. Sure a person can make it about that, but mostly it's about being creative and changing a 'one day' into a 'right now'.

Novembers are usually terrible on me. In my part of the world, nearing the end of the year isn't a 'halfway' mark. It really is the end of the year. And that means all the tons of things you were trying to finish throughout the year actually has to get finished immediately. And oddly, ever single deadline manages to find its way to November. It is in that month where I come in early and leave late, where I sit and buckle. Where the test isn't to see whether I manage to get everything done, but how long it'll be until I crawl underneath my desk with my box of tissues. November is NOT the month of creativity.

But I take part in Nanowrimo anyway. Because under that desk, I have my little world where characters are fighting my battles for me or drawing my frustration from me or commenting on the fact that I am probably insane given the fact that the conversations that go through my mind tend to be between people who don't exist. It is in nano where I give my characters names of people I can't throttle and then have things happen to them. Like a falling piano or a travelling shovel or a disease that makes them a zombie which then obviously justifies decapitation.

I'm actually a pacifist. All bunnies and things. Really. Ahem.

At the end of November, I look at my work and feel that the rat race has been a rat race. I have run myself to death just to end up at EXACTLY the same place. My pages have simply moved from right to left on my desk and somehow that makes the world happy for a month before January starts the race again.

But also at the end of November, I look at nanowrimo and find that I actually achieved something. I've written something and learnt things. I communicated with fellow participants from different places - local and international - and we went through something together. There's something. Not just a race. Next year my story won't be the same. I will feel different in many ways and the only similarity will be my excitement for trying this crazy thing that makes no sense but, at the same time, makes all the sense in the world.

That's what NaNoWriMo gives me. It might give you something completely different.

If you are a blogger, a fiction writer, a person keeping a journal or someone random who suddenly stopped and felt writing a few lines would be kind of neat: I would really and truly recommend giving this a shot. It doesn't cost you anything, but it can give you a lot. It can give you a little confidence in your writing because you learn to build a rhythm. You find a pace that works for you, a time of day, a particular setting. You begin to discover how you think and how to put those words across. You begin to unlock something in yourself that you might be quite used to unlocking or have rarely dared.

And then finally. Remember how I said that nano basically requires you to write one thousand six hundred and sixty-six words? Well, here I present to you a word count of approximately 1690.

Simple as that.

Proof of Life (again) and the XBox One

I am alive!!

No really. I checked my pulse and everything and I'm happy to report I'm still kicking and making a concerted effort to miss the bucket.

After the craziness that was April, I continued my quest to write myself into the ground by doing a Murder Mystery. I'm not going to go through how much I wrote. And I won't go into the amount of hours I lost sleep over it. But it was done, and... well it was done. There was survival and death and food and people - have to have those - and it turned out to be a really enjoyable evening even if it took three days to come to that conclusion and a week to shake it all off.

Well, most of it.

For the rest of the time, I've been gaming like crazy. I haven't had the opportunity since March to do that. I'm still thinking of what I'm going to play as I write this.

But first... XBox One.

Let me first make this absolutely clear: I understand. I really do. I understand that this machine is the 'next-generation'. I know that technology is an amazing thing and that the possibilities for consoles are spectacular. I understand that taking everything to the cloud enables developers to do extra awesome stuff. So don't think I don't understand any of that. What can be done with it is really great. The possibilities are endless (at least until the next console comes out).

Glad that's cleared up. On with the show.

Yes, the whole announcement was disappointing. I'm not going to go into that so much. What can be said has been said, I think. There is a greater disappointment brewing in me. 

I've been listening to podcasts and reading articles and looking at tweets about the whole XBox thing and here are some of the comments that come up a lot:

• Come on! Are you really telling me that people will fork out half a grand (USD) only to play games?? 
• It's just PlayStation fanboys that are knocking the system. Seriously, if you hate it so much, don't buy it! Go buy the PS4.
• There seems to be a generation of haters. Just look at the whole Bioware thing. They seem to be only content on hating whatever is put out there. 

So in short, and pardon the language, the message I seem to picking up is:

FUCK YOU!

Thanks guys. Really appreciate it.

Here's my response to it. I know I'm in the minority, but none of these comments completely fit me or I think the people making them are missing the point. But here's my pitiful story. Haul out the tissues now.

I've always been a PC gamer at heart. Gameranx shared this one pic on Facebook about finger placements

on a keyboard. When I looked down at my left hand, guess where my fingers were at? But I just can't win the upgrade battle. It seems like every game out there expects a better machine. Thus, while PC games are a lot cheaper, I always ended up paying more to build up my computer. For that I also needed techies since my scope of hardware knowledge only spans that far. Plus then I have to open up my machine - every time exposing it to the risk of something getting damaged along the way - just so I can do it all over again the moment the next game hits the scene. I'd have to install it onto my computer with a myriad of other small programmes to somehow make sure that the disc I stuck into my computer will end up working. And then you have the fun where one of those mini-programmes end up not being compatible with some other programme and there ends up being one major turf war right there on my PC.

People fork out thousands for a gaming rig and you're surprised that people would do any different for a gaming console?

The PC battle was why I caved and went to console gaming. Yes, I'd pay more but I didn't have to worry about hardware save for my controller's batteries - and the red ring of death... okay that WAS a pain. But yeah, okay, console gaming... okay, I'll go with that.

Also note that these machines are called gaming consoles - as in primary reason they exist. Yes, the media experience and whatnot are all awesome features. TV and Skype and watching movies that either aren't available in my country or the services promoted by the system simply don't exist. My television (which I need to replace because it's old and decrepit) is solely there so I can play games on it. I haven't connected it to an antenna in over 6 years. Why? Because I don't care to watch television. Simple as that. The tv shows you can rent in box sets at the video store where I can sit and watch as many episodes as pleases me without having to endure commercials for products that I couldn't care about.

Anyway, back to choosing to switch to consoles. 

My arch nemesis

Truth of the matter is, while I love some of the games available only to PlayStation, I absolutely hate the controller. I hate the fact that on the PlayStation consoles I am limited in playing games by the amount of pain and discomfort I can stand rather than the amount of time I have available to play. So I went with the XBox360 and, save for the South African version of Microsoft Service during my red-ring fiasco, I haven't ever regretted going for it. 

So I'm not a PS fangirl. 

And I'm in general not a hater - though those who know my obsession with Mass Effect would know why the Bioware statement was a particular low blow, but anyhoo.

I am also a single-player kind of girl. The only time I want to connect with others about games, is around a cup of coffee or on the internet talking to them about it. My game is my game. I don't play well with others and I don't care to. I don't have to. Why? For what? If someone else wants to go for that, awesome, but why should I? It's called being introverted. Gaming is my hobby. I draw energy from being by myself and not from having to try and not be frustrated at friends or worse random asswipes messing up my game. That's not a relaxing activity at all.

With that in mind, why should I then have to buy a yearly subscription? More money in your pocket just to have my console be touched once a day, y'know, just to make sure that I actually exist, that my games are my own. Oh and HEY! Since you've already invaded my sanctuary, my cave, my fortress of solitude, how about adding some other nonsense that pulls from the bandwith I pay for and which I so jealously guard? 

Seriously dude, keep your fingers off my machine. I don't want your features, you can shove them somewhere. I just want to game. Why is that so hard to understand?

Finally. Let's talk about the internet issue.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, are the devices through which I connect to the internet when not at work:

 






I have no telephone line or DSL or whatnot because my need for internet connection is limited. I use it for communicating and reading and writing. As such, I don't need to pay our crappy service providers more for a bigger cap. Again, why should I have to? And let's not get onto the reliability of said service or signal or all that jazz.

I would want for nothing more than to stick with XBox and a part of me would really like to believe that the press conference was as inaccurate in the few statements it made as Microsoft claims - though if that's the case, it doesn't say much for them now does it? 

Someone stated that, just because Sony omitted it, doesn't mean that they might not have similar requirements. If that's the case then I wouldn't buy their new console either. Because it wouldn't change the problems I have with it.

So my current gaming plan of action is the following:

• Get a better TV.
• Buy a PS3.
• Play everything I can play on it.
• See whether Microsoft and Sony really are going to cut my console gaming career short.
• Buy a gaming rig.
• Bat my eyes at techies and try to catch up and learn as much as I can so I can upgrade my PC myself.
• Scowl about the injustice of it all.

Because, y'know. That's what we haters do.

Again, let me make this clear. I know you're offering me the sun and the moon and the stars. Problem is, I just kinda want this patch of dirt over here called Earth. Think you can manage that? Not too big for you, is it?

Proof of Life - Post Camp Nanowrimo

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that I'm still very much alive after what was an INSANELY hectic April both personally as well as with regards to Camp Nanowrimo.

The gorgeous muse of inspiration came to visit me - even if it was to at least fart a little in my direction - and I ended up making my initial fifty-thousand word count just after two weeks. Bolstered by this, I attempted another twenty-five.

Good grief, I almost didn't make it. But I did, and I made it and like the smells of the gases the muse graced me with, what I wrote will probably end up to be a steaming pile. However it's a seventy-five thousand word steaming pile so I'm chuffed.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Naturally, my life has all but halted and I need to realise that, yes, there is actually more geeky stuff I could be doing and sorta have done and I can probably comment on them. I'm also going to be taking an awesome break next week, so who knows? Maybe the little wench sends some more gas my way and you might end up with a little more than this...

I is crazy please shoot me now

What was I thinking?

What am I thinking?

My frenzied, maniacal charge through Nanowrimo last year was done with the backing of a full six months' worth of planning (yeah, I double checked my notes and chats, it had actually been that long). And although I didn't work through all of the notes, hadn't finished and can probably consider the story only 65% complete, what remains is hardly as detailed. That was supposed to have come later.

So why, oh why, was it that a brief twitter conversation that started with someone saying this...

Ola!! You doing Camp Nano with us? We have coffee! And cookies ;-)

...ended with me saying:

 *laughs* Fine! But you better be bribing me with awesome cookies, madam :D

Please someone kill me now.

The worst part of it is that the evil woman who tweeted her accursed offer of cookies at me lives on the other side of the country. I've never met her and most likely won't. *mutters* Probably poisonous cookies.

So what is it?

Well, as you can guess from the name, Camp Nanowrimo an offshoot of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month... although it's interNational now, but anyhoo). There are some distinct differences, but the idea of it is the same. You sit and write a story from scratch aiming to reach a specific wordcount by the end of the month. One of the differences to Nano being that you can actually set your own target. Camp Nano also allows you to choose between one of two months (or both) to participate - namely April and July. It makes use of the Nanowrimo forums as a means for participants to communicate. Camp Nano also allows them to be grouped into 'cabins'. These cabins can be a group of strangers who have a similar interest or friends who try and be grouped together. My suspicion is that, due to the participation of Camp Nano being considerably less, municipal liaisons aren't really there to fire up the local group. The cabins are there to push up morale so that you don't feel like you're the only one participating.

Camp Nano is essentially there for those who couldn't get enough of Nanowrimo or those whose Novembers are far too busy to participate.

There are of course as always some Nano Rebels. People who use the time and deadline for their own nefarious schemes such as writing screen plays, writing 30 poems instead writing fiction to satisfy a word count, writing non-fiction, writing a collection of short stories instead of a novel, continuing old work rather than starting something new. (I don't really consider the last one that much of a rebellion, but I'll be falling into that category this month.)

So what's my target?

I'll be aiming for 50k again. Yes, I know. I'm going to hate myself, but I know I can make it. I'm not aiming for higher and frankly babbling 1667 words a day - not really a challenge for me. That is, if I have a storeroom filled with ideas.

So I have 6.5 days left before the April craze begins. What I will be doing until then?

Such a silly question. Of course I will be PLANNING!!!!!!!!!

I'm not a pantser.




Those better be bloody good fictitious cookies...

Game Babble: Tomb Raider Reboot

Lara Croft. Strong. Smart. Sexy. 

Ask a gamer what comes to mind when they think of her and the common thread would be that she is appealing. In just about every way possible, she's managed to capture the attention of a majority of the gaming community who have followed her into tombs since 1996. She has been to just about every part of the globe, driven just about every vehicle, fired just about every weapon, has died, has returned and now she's reborn as something we have not yet seen Lara Croft as.

A human being.

Lara has always managed to be something of a symbol. She carries a power within her that inspires women. No longer are we the damsels in distress, the ones fawning over the genius of a man, carrying their equipment while they set out to explore and discover. Lara blazed ahead as someone who could take care of herself and achieve success in whatever she put her mind to. She could overcome the odds and still manage to do so without having to butch up.

But the British explorer has always been perfect. She may struggle, but she never really gets any grit underneath her fingernails. As awesome as it is to have a woman represented as something more than a submissive sex toy, she's always seemed a little out of reach for me.

Cue the reboot.

The latest Tomb Raider sets out to show us what shaped Laura into being the all-but-fearless badass we have grown up with. She's on her very first expedition and along with the crew of the Endurance is off to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. While Laura is not the lead archaeologist, the crew knows her well and trusts her judgement and so when she points them into the worst possible direction on instinct, they follow.

And the boat sinks. Nice one Laura.

And that's where the game starts off. Laura is separated from her crew and they need to all get together and leave the island they wash up on. Of course things are never that easy.

So how does one became "fearless"? You overcome your fears. How do you do that? By being immersed in them and having to find your way out. The game goes to just about every level to shake Laura - and by extension you. Laura is terrified and with good reason. She has to fend for herself and, like anyone of us may be in that situation, she doesn't truly believe that she can do it.

In one of the earliest cutscenes the player watches Laura begging someone to come get her; to find her and save her. The idea of surviving on her own, of trudging off into the unknown, hips swinging, doesn't come into her mind at all. I think this in particular is something that I admired. Laura does have some advantages, some survival training, but she is forced into trying circumstances simply because there isn't any other option. There isn't anyone else able or available to perform whatever task needs to be performed at that particular time.

Laura grows through the game much like a blade gets sharpened on a whetstone. Painfully.

I was really scared to buy this game without hearing from anyone else how it was. Not being as deep into the Tomb Raider series, I was already not completely sold on the idea that this game was going to be worth R600 (and tthat's with a pre-order discount). It's a lot of money. I'm still waiting for Far Cry 3 to come down on its price and I've been itching to get my hands on it.

Stinginess aside. The biggest reason for my hesitance was this:

Those of you who have been following the build up to the game's release may instantly know what my reluctance was about. In one of the trailers, it shows Mister Baddie shown in the screenshot above seemingly very interested in his young, beautiful, female captive. Laura fights him off, grabs his gun and shoots him. He becomes her very first kill and she understandably freaks out about it.

The problem being that it brought up a rather painful question: Should rape be portrayed in games? The reason for that question was naturally the interest Mister Baddie showed. Even from the picture above, it hardly seems as if he's just about to stop with his hand on her shoulder

It caused an uproar. The idea that Laura would have to fight off this dude from raping and then killing her. It's stomach turning. It's revolting. Bring the pitchforks. I'll take the lead.

Fortunately, the trailer was incredibly misleading.

I've played past this point. Let me give you a spoiler. You see Mister Baddie's hand? That hand has a massive fascination with squeezing the life out of Laura, and not slipping any lower as the trailer implied. I've purposefully missed the fighting cues to see what would happen. The furthest he goes is to trail his hand down her arm, then he grabs her throat - just like he does when you miss any of the cues . In no instant is there an idea that he's going to take her. The only explanation I can give for the 'tenderness' in his touch is his love for killing.

So if you're like me and were willing to tear things apart with your bare hands. Stay calm and rest assured. There are no dodgy scenes besides the occasional strangling, being shot, knifed, falling to one’s death or being crushed by boulders. Oh and a lot of corpses, skulls and body parts.

Hope that puts you at ease. ;)

I have to say, I'm impressed. I didn't think I was going to be. I was hoping for a good game, but was cautious to get too excited about it. Naturally I failed. Thankfully the game didn't let me down. The scenery is breathtaking. The music is good.

The acting... oh my word, the acting! These actors are making magic in a room that gives them virtually nothing to go on. They're utterly brilliant. The script is also superb. I haven't had a moment where I felt like asking what the writers had been smoking when they cooked up the dialogues. Everything is relevant, whether you take the time to listen to it or not. Nothing is trite. Nothing is cliche. The creators really did good on this one.

I'm about halfway into the game according to the percentage of completion the game gives me, but I think I'm a little further in terms of story. And it has been a hell of a ride. I've cringed and freaked out (I don't like heights), I've gasped and snarled (softly, the dogs were sleeping), I've laughed as Laura did some snarling of her own.

I'm enjoying every bit of this game.

From a story side, I'm extremely curious to see where it's going to end off. I love the character progression thus far, I love themes that get seeded into the story. I'll admit it. I'm hooked. I'm not devoted. But I'm hooked.

I'm not going to go into gameplay and what not. I might do that in a later post... maybe. I can tell you the only problem I've had with the game is finding a flaw worth mentioning. Yes. I'm having trouble finding fault. Imagine that.

Tentatively Excited

So my past self left my present self a surprise.

I pre-ordered Tomb Raider and forgot about it.

Now this was back in the beginning of 2012 when the release date was still somewhere around November. So after all that jazz and the craziness that was last year - seriously, crazy doesn't actually come near to describing it - I eventually ended up forgetting about the whole thing.

That is until last week when I got a text message reminding me of it.

I wasn't really planning on getting it immediately. I figured I'd go the same route as I'm going with Far Cry 3 which I actually really want to play. That route being to wait it out until the crazy price drops to something more manageable. But seeing as I did pre-ordered and since I haven't bought any games in several months... Hell, why not?

I'm hoping that it's going to be worth the money. I'm hoping there aren't any rape scenes or any nonsense in there (you'll hear me ranting about it if there are, believe you me). These are things that had me thinking that if I heard so much as a whisper of it, I wasn't going to touch the game at all. So I'm taking a leap of faith. I'm excited because from what I've seen, it's going to be good.

I'm planning on blogging about it this weekend regardless. Here's hoping it's going to be a gush and not a whine. Or a meh. Tired of meh.

Book Babble: The Hunger Games

Hi! Been a while, hasn't it? Well, I'm glad to inform you I'm still alive. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get to what this post is actually about.

What it's about

The Hunger Games centres around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who becomes a tribute (an offering) from her district to the Capitol - the oppressive governing body of what was formerly America. She and eleven other tributes are sent to the Capitol to take part in an annual televised death match. The winner, being the only one left alive, will walk back out again and thereby grant their district the grace of not going hungry for a year. The games is expressly for the enjoyment of the Capitol and acts as punishment for the twelve districts and their rebellion 74 years before. As Katniss fights for survival, little does she know the impact she's having on those watching outside of the games. 

I'm going to write both about the movie and the book. I think they're such a brilliant complement to each other that one can actually consider them as a single unit. I might spend a little time on the other two books in the series: Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

The Hunger Games

The book is written in first-person from Katniss' point of view and really sets up the shock of what happens throughout the story. Katniss is stubborn and strong-willed with a survivalist instinct born from having to take care of her family. She can be cold and calculating and has difficulty really knowing her own feelings let alone expressing them. This makes her withdrawn and difficult to warm up to. This is a big problem in the Hunger Games as the survival of the tributes could depend on gifts sent to them during the games from sponsors. These gifts don't come often, but can be anything needed in a moment of crisis be it food, medicine, extra weapons, etc. Should the sponsors like you, they'd want to keep you alive. So capturing their attention may very well be in your best interest. Which means making yourself worth noting - something that Katniss only is good at the moment she forgets herself and does something out of instinct.

The movie, in many ways, shows the story from the perspective of those outside of the games and specifically from the perspective of the Capitol. It's reality tv in its gruesome finest. As the movie cannot show you Katniss' thoughts, insight is supplied by interviews and eager Capitol commentators talking about strategy, obstacles, and the 'excitement' of the games. The movie goes out of its way to contrast the decadence of the Capitol versus the desperation of the districts it oppresses.

As I've said, the movie is in many ways a complement to the book. It shows a different perspective on the same story and helps fill in the spaces that readers might not have immediately understood from the books. I specifically had that problem. When I finished the first book I was very neutral about it. I couldn't decide because I couldn't understand some of the choices Collins had made. I didn't understand why she went to some of the extremes she had gone to.

It took Alyssa (a partner in crime) to sit and explain it; to point out the underlying message the Capitol was sending to the districts for me to first understand, then appreciate and finally marvel at how amazing the book actually was. I felt dumb not getting it the first time 'round. Soon after that, the movie came out and emphasised all the points she had made and again I felt dumb, but maybe I wasn't the only one. That's what I console myself with at least. In any event, the movie shone a light in the patches hidden within the pages of the book and so they really end up making a neat whole.

Katniss

There is this quote I heard as a teenager that has stuck with me ever since. "When we forget ourselves, we usually do something everyone else remembers." Katniss' story is very much about that. When she does what she's supposed to, when she controls herself as much as she can, then Katniss doesn't make much of an impression. However, the moment she just acts and reacts to her emotions, she blazes and captures everyone's attention.

I can't say I liked Katniss, but really now, this is me. Can we say we're really surprised that I didn't? Nope. Didn't think so. But I can't say I disliked her either. She is someone who has been shaped by very difficult circumstances to become she needs to be rather than just being who she is. She comes across distant and unapproachable; expressionless to some extent. I know Jennifer Lawrence has been faulted for playing Katniss too two-dimensionally, but in truth, the movie rendition of her is far more emotionally expressive than the book's. 

Maybe it is the necessity, the role she has to play that makes me dislike Katniss. She has to be manipulative to have her best chance at surviving the games. It's very much like supposed real-life television where everything is bs and spectacle. She has to adapt and in doing so, I get put off. Yes, hypocritical and heartless of me I know. It has to be said though, of all the protagonists I've disliked, she's at the bottom of the list. Which means she's very close to 'okay', but not quite there yet. At least not at the end of the first book. By the second and moreso the third, I'll go as far as bumping her up to the bottom of my 'like list'.

I'm not going to go into the whole team Gale/Peeta thing. 

Gale is hunky, Peeta is charming. Both are interesting in their own right and both are really not. But then we know I'm not the gushy love-puppy type. I think they act more as a way of pointing out the two sides to Katniss: the mind and the heart. They're instruments of hormones that Katniss very rarely has time for. Y'know, with the whole not-being-killed thing. They did cast the two characters really well in the movie, it has to be said.

Peeta comes across very flat both in the book and in the movie. He only starts showing his true depth in Catching Fire and then just fizzles out in Mockingjay. But the main reason he seems so 2D is because Peeta is all heart. He's very true to himself and that self just so happens to care about everything. As we know, a drawing is very bland without shading and that's very much how Peeta comes across. You feel for the guy. What he is admired for is also the his greatest weakness in the games. He is set up as a lamb for the slaughter and you're just waiting for the axe to fall.

Gale, on the other hand, is all wolf. He's a survivor, a hunter. He sets his mind to something and gets it done. He is also very dark and broody and can do an awesome Angel impression. He clearly cares for Katniss, but he isn't all heart. He comes out a lot more throughout the series and his rage against the Capitol knows no bounds.

The series
When you talk to people who've liked The Hunger Games and then read the series, get yourselves ready for two different reactions. The one group with tell you "For the love of all that is sacred, don't read the rest of the books!!" and the other will say "The other two books aren't as good as the first one, but I'd think they're worth reading."

I think I'm in both camps. If you want the two subsequent books to capture what the first book did, don't read them. You're going to be disappointed.

Catching Fire shows how Katniss is left in a very precarious position. She has survived the Hunger Games and managed to piss off people that can grind her home into dust. How do you bs your way through that? It's about realising the power of a small act and dealing with the possibility that everything can spiral out of control because of it.

Mockingjay in turn is about the power of a symbol, how people would do anything to manipulate such a symbol and how easily it is to become what one hates. In the last book, Katniss breaks free by doing exactly what she has done all along: forgetting herself and acting out on instinct.

The series has some surprises in store and does bring things to a close. I can't call it satisfying but I don't feel like pulling out a bullhorn and warding people off from reading it. Collin's did state that the reason The Hunger Games became a series was because the story didn't feel done yet. By the end of the third one, it has definitely reached that feeling.

Conclusion
Whether you read the series or not, I'd still recommend giving The Hunger Games a shot. I enjoyed the book. I loved the movie and it is definitely something I want to purchase - the score is lovely. And it's something I wouldn't mind revisiting again in the near future. That itself is definitely a thumbs-up.



_LOTR Storybook update_
Gandalf and Strider are debating the mountains versus Moria. I still want to chew my wrists and the disc in my car reached its end. I'm in no way tempted to put the next one in.

Babble: Glee! is ripping off covers.

So I wanted to do a post on Coursera today. No really! I'm not lying! But then yesterday I stumbled further onto a story that I think merits addressing.

And that is the story of:

I can't call myself an absolutely devoted fan, but there is a part of me that absolutely loves Glee. I blame it on the theatre geek in me that never received the exposure necessary to turn into a snob. In any event, it's a show I can enjoy despite the moments that it tries to preach at me or throw themed episodes at me that make me shudder. It's a show that can inspire me. It's a show that takes risks and addresses issues that are common in life and high school, but not necessarily what I would call common on television.

And it's a show whose creators seem to be sneaky and worth frowning upon.

I often find myself marvelling at the way a song would be performed by Glee. Sometimes the approach is so contrary to its original rendition and other times it's absolutely spot on and that makes it just as spectacular.

Here's the problem: It would appear that some of the covers were nabbed from other people - initially without the artists knowing and then without really acting as if it's all that much of a big deal seeing as due to [insert legal copyright explanation here] Fox can get away with it. In at least one case, the group they nabbed the cover from got credit but it seemed that it was also in bad taste. From what I've read the potential agreement between the show creators and Divisi fell through and the song got used anyway.

Mash-up artist DJ Earthworm also seems to have fallen prey to Glee without them giving him anything more than a big ol' raspberry if even that much.

Then there was Greg Laswell's rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls just wanna have fun". The producers didn't even bother giving any kind of nod in his case. His response does kinda show the heart of the matter:


"Of the Glee version, I think they have enough talent over there that they shouldn't need to go rummaging through other artists' work. Public acknowledgement of their note-for-note rendition would have gone a long way."






The way I (and probably quite a few other people) became aware of this whole thing was when Jonathan Coulton's cover of 'Baby got back' was used in a recent episode. With his, it was surprisingly blatant, even including lines that he had put in himself.

So why is Coulton's case different? I can't say that it is. But the mistake Fox made with Coulton is that they didn't bank on the fact that he has a serious geek following. He also has a lot of colleagues who happen to be geeks and who also have rather large geek followings. Add this little thing called Twitter and hmm....

I think all of this was utterly unnecessary on Fox's part. I don't think anything will really come from it legally, but there is going to be a backlash. And as much as I love Glee, I hope that backlash will be substantial. 

Spitting Kitty left the following comment on Glee's youtube vid of Baby got back (the vid I embedded):  I have a great suggestion for an episode of Glee! The New Directions do this incredible cover of a song, let's say Boyz in the Hood, and the Warblers steal their version for sectionals. The New Directions go to the judges to complain, and are told, "too bad, so sad, it wasn't your song to begin with!"

I think that's it in a nutshell. We can play the 'Whose song is it anyway?' and we can point out what this copyright means and that copyright means and the idea of borrowing hardly is a new concept regardless whether it's a song, a book, a movie, a piece of technology, etc. etc. But you have to admit no amount of legalese will make this water any less murky or stink any less foul. 

So here's a thought: Why not just give credit where it is due? 

Can you imagine how much lift these artists could have had if they just got a nod? I mean think about how much attention these artists are receiving now and how many slushies the Fox peeps have to wipe off their faces in the process. What if they had gone a different route? How about promoting these artists just as Glee is promoting the next generation of singers, dancers and musicians in the show itself? Image the good press Glee would have received.

So what stopped them? That's the question that's been running through my mind. If giving credit would have been so painless, then why not just give it where it is due and come out the hero for it?

“If this were an episode of Glee I would win." - Jonathan Coulton


Further info:
Wired: Jonathan Coulton Explains How Glee Ripped Off His Cover Song — And Why He’s Not Alone
The Daily Dot: Serial song theft on "Glee"? Jonathan Coulton wasn't the first

The quest of Lord of the Rings...

Road to Gondor by Breathing2004

Were you to talk to me about the Lord of the Rings, you will find me either an admirer or someone who is really disinterested in the subject. It would all depend on one thing:

Are we talking about the movies or the books?

While I realise the depth and scope and brilliance that is the creation of JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth, I have yet to read the trilogy or the Hobbit or any of it. In my life I've attempted reading The Fellowship of the Ring between five and seven times, succeeding only once. Exhausted, I left it there, not even trying to pick up The Two Towers. With some art - especially in poetry and abstract paintings - you really have to work to absorb all it has to offer. With the Fellowship, I felt like I had just finished a marathon crawling over the finish line while carrying a ton of bricks on my back - just to be crushed by the load in the end.

That's the least satisfying way to finish a book.

When I attempt to describe my feelings of trying to read Tolkien's writing to my fellow countrymen, I simply say that I can totally see that he spent his first three years of his life in Bloemfontein. Everyone seems to understand that (except those who were born in Bloemfontein. They don't appreciate that at all haha).

I know I'm straying very close to literary blasphemy here and I'll be the first to tell you that what the man had done and what ground he had broken for the fantasy writers that came after him is nothing short of amazing. But despite the disbelief of others who had read through the books a bazillion times, I just have never been able to get past book one. And part of me has never really felt the compulsion to do so. However, how can you even claim to enjoy fantasy if you haven't read LoTR? Okay, that's a bit of an over-exaggeration but you get the idea. It is a shock to claim one thing and deny the other. Especially if that other is JRR Tolkien.

So a couple of years ago, I gave myself a goal, a deadline. By a particular year, I should have read through the trilogy at least once. The years passed and still I have not managed to make my goal and now that deadline is sixteen months away. I'm so screwed, haha. Or I will be if I don't take any action now. And so I am. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to go back to the epic journey that had me wanting to slit my wrists before and come hell or high water, I'll get through those books one way or another.

The one way I'm attempting it is by listening to an audio reading. I've stuck it into my car stereo and that's what I'll be listening to until the books are done. If anything, I'll be so desperate to listen to something else that I'll force myself to sit through it. So far I've spent one day in my commute to and from work listening to the disc. I wish I could say that it went well. It didn't. I was bored out of my skull, quite ready to climb out of my car while driving to escape the tedium.

So what is it that gets to me? What is it that makes me want to gnaw at my wrists?

Well the problem I have is that Tolkien is a really expert world builder who is completely infatuated with his world. Which means that the journey through the first book is one massive detour throughout. And to be honest? I don't care. If you haven't made me care about what is going on, I could be less concerned about the world in which it takes place. I don't care about whose feet are hairier, who figured out how to stick stuff in a pipe and smoke it. I don't care how many times a hobbit eats in a day. You've already bored me to tears and you haven't even gotten to the first line of dialogue. And when we finally get there, it's just as much of a schlep to get through.

Yes, I've signed my confession, haul me off to the gallows. Tolkien might be amazing, but he's amazingly boring. Not that he meant to capture me. His writing of the Hobbit and LoTR, from what I understand, was for his own pleasure. An external audience had never been his priority, it was his place to explore and stuff whoever else may read it. And again, I admire him for it. It is a rich world, multi-layered and well-defined. I just haven't even been able to go through his basking without stifling a yawn.

Alright, so ...

Action 1) Audio book in car where I can't escape and where I can't listen to anything else until the evil series is over.

Action 2) Random updates here. Nothing works as good on me as guilt. Stuff positive affirmation, if you want me to do something, guilt me into it. You'll get twice the reward with half the effort. And the best way to make me feel guilty is to hold me accountable. So I'll be throwing in random posts commenting on what I've heard that I might have found interesting (Please let there be something. Please) and maybe a rant or two here and there. Who knows? I don't.

Action 3) ... I don't know yet. Anyone who can think of any ideas, chuck 'em my way. Goodness knows I need it.

It is a place that has enchanted so many. It has inspired so many. It has become the ultimate fantasy measuring stick. And I can see why. I just hope at some point I can do more than just appreciate it from a distance. Otherwise, this is going to be an awful time to be in my car...