No Ordinary Destiny

Posted by BlackWidower on

Fucking Bollocks! That was my reaction when I heard Stargate Universe, my favourite show currently on the air, wasn’t going to make it past a second season.

This always happens. If I like a show, it will likely be cancelled very soon, while crap like American Idol and The Apprentice remains on the air, or worse, the Jersey Shore. I ended up watching that show a couple of times and it appears to be about cheap whores, cheap man-whores, and one really cheap whore. Plus I never thought I’d hear someone use the word ‘Guido’ with a positive connotation.

But Stargate Universe barely lasts two seasons before being axed, and since the announcement came after filming for the first two seasons was completed, it’s likely the series finale will end in a cliffhanger, in anticipation for a non-existent season three. Which pisses me off more. I know they are likely to say they will release a Stargate Universe movie, but they also planned to release an Atlantis movie years ago, and that didn’t happen. So…

But the big question is: Why!? Why is it being cancelled!? Bad ratings, sure. But why does it have bad ratings? Continue reading →

A Life Less Lived

Posted by BlackWidower on

Once again, I get a little introspective on here. Decide to write about myself, and not anything you care about. So if this doesn’t interest you, may I suggest my posts on Atheism, or Cloverfield. Also there’s this game called Alpha Centauri that you should certainly look into pirating. There’s more on this blog then the latest, just wanted you to know.

So here I was, up late at night because I didn’t feel like sleeping, and Conan was on. He was talking to Edmund Morris, a historian who wrote three tomes on Theodore Roosevelt: Author, Explorer, Historian, Scientist, Exercise Nut, and two-term President of the United States. He read at four pages a minute, had a photographic memory, and an extensive knowledge of foreign cultures. He was a great man, who accomplished much…and what am I? Continue reading →

The Man Without a Faith

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There is no god.

There, I said it. I pull no punches when it comes to this shit because I think it’s an extremely important point to make. Though I think I should include a few qualifiers: There is no evidence of any god’s existence and it’s irrational to assume there is a god. Therefore, there is no god.

I believe only what has been proven through science, or more broadly, through experimentation and study. Though ‘believe’ is probably the wrong word. Belief is associated with faith, and I find faith to be, honestly, a bad thing. Continue reading →

I Saw It, It’s Alive, It’s Huge!

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The giant monster movie genre is one that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in western culture. In ’98 we had the bastard love child of Roland Emmerich and Godzilla, and in 2005 Peter Jackson decided to copy a 72-year-old film rather than come up with an original idea. But beyond those two there weren’t any western monsters that one could call our own, and there are none at all that we could be proud of, particularly in recent history. I mean both Kong and Zilla were taken down by guns and missiles respectively. Fucking pussies. Compare that to the real Godzilla who can survive a fucking nuke to the face.

At least, that was true until 2008, when Cloverfield was released. Possibly one of the greatest monster movies ever made.

Cloverfield was surrounded by much mystery up until its January 2008 release because it was produced by J.J. Abrams. But I’ll get into that later. All that mystery contributed to the much deserved hype. It’s unique and engaging and I for one, loved it. Continue reading →

Mankind’s Future Didn’t Sell Well

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Merry Christmas everybody! It’s that time of year again, and as 2010 comes to a close we take two days to worship the gods of consumerism as parents spend thousands on hunks of plastics so their children will love them.

Okay, I’m probably being pessimistic about this. I mean hell, I love giving presents. This year I focused mainly on the little kids in my family because my mom is hard to shop for and I really don’t want to buy anything for anyone else. But when people are trampled to death by other people who want 20% off a Kirk action figure, it can shatter your faith in humanity. That’s why I try to avoid that crap, if a store is too crowded, I put it off for another day. I’m not that desperate for anything. Anyway, kids love books right? However, I need to remember for next year to do my online shopping earlier, like in November, so it get’s here before New Years.

There’s not really a Christmas tradition on this blog, primarily because it has only been around for about a year, so I figure I’ll just write about whatever the fuck I feel like. Which happens to be a video game.

I’m not really a fan of turn-based strategy games. I own a copy of Tom Clancy’s End War for the DS and I just cannot get into it. Believe me, I tried. It’s hard to take a vested interest in little tiny icons on a screen. More recently I bought a copy of Civilization Revolution for the DS. Again, cannot get into it. This could be because the DS version is scaled back, but I cannot get interested in what happens. It also blows my mind that my citizens only need to walk ten feet to meet another nation, when in reality it was likely the early humans had to build great ships before they encountered another nation.

But keeping this in mind, it’s kind of odd that one of my favourite games of all time is Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. …I said “one of.” Continue reading →

Time Again and Mario Rip-off

Posted by BlackWidower on

Video games are new…relatively. So it still hasn’t reached the point where we can call it an art form. It took thousands of years after the invention of writing before the greatest works of literature were formed, like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the great works of William Shakespeare. So, it might take just as long for gaming to make the same impression on the collective consciousness. However, film is less than a century old and we already got some good stuff, the Alien trilogy, the Star Wars trilogy, the Star Trek undecology and the Matrix onelogy. So maybe we can get some really good games that will still be played generations from now…or maybe we already do.

Recently, and by recently I mean April, Roger Ebert caused a ruckus in the gaming community when he said video games can never be art…ever. While Ebert is a very persuasive and brutal movie critic, he isn’t really a major authority on video games, and his exposure to games has consisted entirely of watching someone else play them, which takes away from the experience somewhat. Besides, as far as I can tell, his definition of art is inherently incompatible with anything interactive. It also seems to be incompatible with anything bad. I think the Twilight series is a collection of purely refined shit, but it’s still art. Of course my definition of art is pretty simple, it’s anything that is a reflection of the creator’s creativity and imagination.

I could go into more detail, but I think I’ll leave that to an upcoming blog post. The point is, games are art, now, and to prove it, I give you exhibit A: Braid. Continue reading →

A Case For Space

Posted by BlackWidower on

So the end is coming. Oh, don’t worry, well, maybe a little. It’s not the end of the world yet, that’s not for another two years, and then seven years after that, and 21 years after that. I’m saying it’s not happening. People have always predicted the end of the world over and over and they have always been wrong.

Anyway, that’s not what I really wanted to talk about. I’m talking about a real end here, the end of space exploration as we know it, the end of NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Continue reading →

Educational Handouts

Posted by BlackWidower on

I never thought I’d see the day. The day where our compulsion to give the disabled an “even footing” or whatever, reached its absurd conclusion. This is another case of the slippery slope argument showing some validity.

What am I talking about? This, the case of Gabor Lukacs, a University of Manitoba mathematics professor, who protested against awarding a mathematics PhD to a student. Why would anyone protest this? Because he failed to meet all the academic requirements. Now, why would they award a PhD to someone who, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t receive it? After all, if you fail to meet the requirements, you fail to receive the PhD, that’s why they are called requirements. Well you see, this student has an anxiety disorder. Continue reading →