Back in the early 2000’s, I was on a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and with Halloween right around the corner, this is a great time to follow through on […]
Back in the early 2000’s, I was on a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and with Halloween right around the corner, this is a great time to follow through on […]
Between work and dealing with computer issues, I’ve been trying to find time to read this week. I recently received the signed copy of Joshua Doetsch’s “Strangeness in the Proportion” I was lucky enough to snag, and I wish I […]
Followers of my personal blog have probably already gathered I work at my local humane society (animal shelter). It’s an extremely tiring, but also extremely rewarding job. Working there has shown me that some things I take for granted between […]
Some things are almost guaranteed during the month of August. Picnics, shedding pets, Renaissance festivals, blogging… Blogging? This August I joined over 80 other bloggers in signing up for Blaugust. This blogging challenge was started last year by Belghast […]
If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably noticed I’m spending a lot of time watching the #SGDQ (Summer Games Done Quick) 2015 event. I mentioned it briefly on my personal blog, but I’ve never sat down and tried to explain why I enjoy watching so much.
I only discovered the Games Done Quick events after seeing a friend of mine tweeting about #AGDQ (Awesome Games Done Quick) last January. Gremz is an awesome lady that I first met through the Video Games Awesome Minecraft server, and whom I later spent time with in an online Pathfinder game. She’s got good taste, and I figured anything she was that excited about was probably worth checking out, despite never having much interest in speedruns.
When I went to their website, I read that GDQ is “a bi-annual charity gaming marathon. Volunteers play games at incredible speed (“Speedrunning”) for entertainment. The event is streamed live online, non-stop, and all donations go directly to the charity.”
Right off the bat, I can tell you that I don’t often see movies in theaters anymore. I stopped in my early 20’s since I was always too broke (and also worked at Blockbuster, making rentals far easier to manage). I never really got back in the habit again. I won’t even go with the obnoxious logic that they don’t make movies worth seeing in theaters anymore – I’m just still too cheap to bother.Still, last week I wound up seeing two movies. One, a promise I’d made to my mother, was Jurassic World. The other was Tomorrowland. Before I discuss some of my thoughts on these movies, I’ll mention that I am not an authority on film, CGI, feminism, dinosaurs…I’m just talking about my impressions here, not trying to present anything as objective truth.
I had a different article typed up and ready to go for today. I’d planned on discussing my view that it’s healthy to have opinions about the things you enjoy – including criticism. In short, feeling that a game/book/movie could be improved if only [thing] does not automatically mean you hate the game/book/movie, and I get tired of folks being so quick to jump all over each other based on that faulty assumption. I still might talk about that either here or on my personal blog, but I’ve gotten distracted enough with E3 news to type up something a bit different.
For readers who don’t already know, I recently started a new job at a local animal shelter. I could go on at length about how rewarding that is – and indeed, consider this a small PSA to consider getting involved with one in your area. I know ours welcomes volunteers, not just to clean, but also to walk the dogs and even just to spend time with the cats, rodents, rabbits, or birds. If you know of one in your area and it seems like something you’d enjoy doing, I’d definitely recommend asking the staff what options there are for volunteering.
I bring it up right now because in the process of naming one of our kittens, “Lumie” (you’ll get that if you play The Secret World) I got thinking about the ways I bring my gaming and other geeky hobbies into the rest of my life.
[Photo: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham]
I have always been “that” friend. “Yeah, but in the book the line was…” “In the book, that character…” “Really, it was so much better in the book because…”
One of the reasons I say these things is usually, if I see a movie based on a book, I’ve read the book first. When I was a kid it was Bambi, Dr. Dolittle (1967), The Secret of NIMH, and Watership Down. As I got older…I wouldn’t even know where to start; it sometimes seems like every movie I watch was once a book and every book I read eventually becomes a movie. I’m a huge fan of Stephen King though, and I can tell you now that I don’t think any of his books translate as well as I’d like to the screen.
