Cythusly’s weblog

I’ve been really busy with the startling realization that my & my friends Halloween costumes might not be finished in time and haven’t really been thinking about writing or posting. So while I’m doing work on our costumes and shit I’ll probably be posting progress journals and pictures - so stay tuned for that. I am still trying to get in touch with my friend that is supposed to do some artwork for the site and I’ve got to remember all my passwords and shit so I can backup this thing on a regular basis and then finally upgrade to WordPress 2.6.

Hopefully a larger update later, I’ll try and have something to say or review (I won’t be doing a Dark Knight review because that movie apparently can do no wrong. Actually I can think of one thing but it’s so whatever-y that it’s not even worth mentioning.)

-Tyler

I’m working on a new layout for the blog right now but it’s still a couple weeks away. I’m trying to get one of my friends to do some artwork but she’s really busy working on stuff for TokyoPop and hasn’t been able to do commissions much less artwork for me.

I need to buy a binder or pad of paper so I can just jot down ideas I have for the blog as I have them. I know about 2, maybe 3 people read this (all my friends, and I love you for that) so I’m not so much doing this for attention as I am just to get thoughts and ideas (and reviews, yes, seems gimicky - but it’s just a way for me to think about things and put them into a little more formal presentation than my normally stream of consciousness first draft posts) down for posterity’s sake.

I got to the con a little bit earlier today than yesterday, it was really nice knowing that there was a tram that ran right from where I was staying to the convention center - it saved about 3 hours of trying to find parking, yes, Comicon is that fucking insane.

I got back around to the Ghostbusters VG booth and met the canon 5th Ghostbuster - Ryan, one of the developers. The guy was really awesome, and loves the property as much as I do. He was really interested in what everyone had to say about the game. After playing it I only had ONE complaint (that I didn’t get a chance to tell him because he had left for lunch) and that was when the characters put away their throwers the animation is not realistic. That’s it. Something in a game about catching ghosts that doesn’t look right because it’s so difficult as to being almost impossible.

After that I ended up collecting a nifty con exclusive LEGO Joker and Batman that I will probably end up giving to one of my friends (he loves LEGOs and I missed his birthday this weekend.) Swagged some other nifty, useless stuff. I’ll probably post a picture on Monday or something.

I saw the entire Guild cast standing around taking in a huddle and I decided not to bother them and just find them while they’re signing later.

I was excited to meet quite a few people that I’d missed on Friday. Wil Wheaton (I got his book “Happiest Days” and talked to him for a bit and he was cool, there’s another story here and I’ll tell that a little later on); Scott Kurtz from PvP, the Candyman, Ken Foree and Cassandra Peterson (awesome lady, I did not expect her to be dressed as Elvira but surprisingly enough she was!) and got my picture with most of them.

I also met Amy & Felicia from The Guild and I think I kind of freaked Felicia out a bit, which kind of sucks. They told me the rest of the cast was signing upstairs and I went and found them (getting my picture taken with an awesome Red Power Ranger on the way) and they were very cool! Robyn and Sandeep were very enthusiastic about the Ghostbuster uniform and Robyn was even more excited when I came back with the pack on. I got a few pictures with them and they all turned out… well, so many people were taking pictures of us it got a little confusing. But there was a picture with Vince, Robyn and Jeff that turned out great and the one where Sandeep jumped in that two of us were looking at different cameras. Oh well, it was a very “Zaboo!” moment.

After that the con was kind of winding down and I stuck around for part of the Masquerade showing in one of the satellite showing rooms since I didn’t know Ballroom 20 wasn’t filled to capacity. I left just as there was a chick dancing around as Emma Frost and there was a nip slip and the lights went OUT. I felt really bad for the lady, but come on… who doesn’t wear pasties underneath a tube top? Not that I’m complaining.

After that it was back to the friends place and slept in the tub ’cause there was snoring.

Yay cons.

-Tyler

Comicon has been great so far. Been able to play some of the Ghostbusters game, very fun, need to check it out some more today (Saturday) and I also couldn’t help but notice - Marvel Nemesis 2? Wasn’t Marvel Nemesis a huge steaming pile of crap? Don’t shake your head I bought it, I know how huge and steamy and smelly it was.

Checked out the WB booth and got some cool interior (and a few exterior) shots of Night Owl’s ship (think it’s screen used from Watchmen.) Didn’t swag anything from that booth, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for swag-ing shit. I gave up on doing the little scavenger hunt for LEGO Joker pieces, and when I was feeling more up to it they apparently had run out of heads and stopped doing it for the day.

Web of Shadows looks pretty damn cool, I didn’t hunker down and play any of it but that’s why there’s 2 days left at the con. I also need to check out the Warhammer Online MMO. I went by what seemed to be the conglomeration of awesome webcomic artsts and writers - met R.K. Milholland of something*positive, his girlfriend Rinny (dressed at Zatanna, sooo cute), and Jennie Breeden from The Devil’s Panties, and got a picture with the three of them. I also met the writer/artist from Two/Lumps and he was a very awesome guy, he had been doing a few sketches so I didn’t want to bother him with another - hopefully I can stop by and get a sketch from him today!

I dropped by the Penny-Arcade booth and met Jerry & Mike… and honestly I was less than impressed. I don’t know if I managed to piss them off in the few seconds I was there but they did not seem happy that I was there at all. Maybe I cut off a line or something that I just didn’t see. But the two of them were just sitting there doing nothing. Oh well, I didn’t expect them to be really cool and kiss readers asses - because their pay-grade is way beyond false appreciation of fans. That’s not to say that they don’t appreciate their fans, I’m sure they do. Whatever slight they concocted for me to have committed I hope it was something as awesome as flipping off a box of kittens or punching a baby.

More later,

-Tyler

As most of you might know already the trailer for the Watchmen is out. I was actually really excited to see this but after watching it I am honestly a little more upset than I thought I would be, I mean how difficult is it to make a movie about people who don’t have super powers but dress like super-heroes? From watching the Comedian punch tile and mortar in huge chunks out of a wall to seeing the (young) Silk Spectre apparently flying and coming down through a roof? Come on!

I honestly can’t judge it too much, I mean it’s just the first trailer after all and it very well could be made to look more sensational for us American audiences which only seem to want action and explosions. Of course I can remember watching the trailer for Fight Club and thinking “what the fuck is this?” and swearing I would never see what actually became one of my favourite books and movies.

I really do hope the “visionary” director of 300 - which I honestly had a problem with the changing of the story - Zach Snyder does Watchmen well. We don’t need it to be a super-powered romp through a small conflict, we need the seemingly normal people that fight crime because it’s right and not because they’ve got super powers. Night Owl is freaking Batman and he should be closer to that than let’s say… Superman. The book was about the (at the time) current state of the world and how a comic book could mirror that. Let’s keep it that way. Two people in the story have super powers - Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias, and the latter isn’t nearly as fantastical as the former.

However, I have to give it props, some of the scenes they showed are freaking exactly from the comic which is an amazing feat.

-Tyler

ps. the Dr. Manhattan being deconstructed thing in the beginning looks awesome!

Dead Rising: Wii Edition?

[...]Dead Rising for the Wii will be a port of the Xbox 360’s zombie hack-fest with a few added features. This updated game will see more weapons, motion controls and a new boss for Frank West to smack around with potted plants and golf clubs[...]

Since I don’t own a 360 I haven’t had the pleasure of playing through all of Dead Rising but now that it’s coming to the Wii I have one less reason to buy a 360. Damn. I’m still working on getting one for a few reasons: Mirror’s Edge, Resident Evil 5, and Ghostbusters.

For those of you who haven’t seen or heard: Microsoft cut the price of the XBox 360 Pro system by $50. Which means I’m $50 closer to getting one. So far E3 this year has been shaping up to be pretty awesome for us consumers and I am pretty sure Comic-Con this year is going to blow the announcements from E3 out of the water.

[From 4 color rebellion » Dead Rising: Attack of the Ports]

If anyone hasn’t seen this yet - check it out now!

I’m a fan of a lot of things that are outside the system or are independent in some way. I like indie record stores (now defunct Bionic Records in Huntington Beach, and BooBoo Records in SLO), indie webseries (Retarded Policeman, The Guild) and most of all indie games. They just do it for me.

After playing some of the larger independent games, like Penny Arcade’s “On The Rainslick Precipice Of Darkness” and having absolutely nothing bad to say about the experience, some of the smaller developed flash games like the amazing side-scroller flash version of Portal, and jumping in late on the Uplink bandwagon - I must say that I absolutely love games made by smaller companies. Sometimes just a couple of people, as with 2D Boy, and they come out with an original compelling game that I want to play.

I will definitely be picking it up to support people who have the drive to create something outside the system and the ability to make it as high quality as something made inside the system. I just can’t wait for the Mac version.

[From 2D Boy: Games]

I have fond memories of Star Trek: The Experience. From days spent going on the ride, shopping on the Promenade of DS9. I spent so much time at this place, I spent my 21st birthday there - drinking white russians and playing slots because that’s all my mind could handle. It didn’t even register the $250 jackpot for about a minute.

So… I guess all I have to say is “So it goes.”

Who knows, maybe they’ll even do another Experience someplace else in the country? I know I’d visit.

[From WWdN: In Exile: Star Trek: The Experience is closing]

To be honest I hadn’t heard much about “Love, Janis“: The Musical; only a few things here and there, mostly on KPIG radio when the show was already really close. One of my buddies told me he had an extra ticket to the show on the 19th at Cal Poly - and I love Big Brother and Janis Joplin so I was really excited about the opportunity to get to go.

The show kicked off with a short introduction and went right into “Piece Of My Heart” (which is a little overplayed, but still fucking rocked.) There were two girls who played Janis Joplin, one was a narrator of her writing and the other was the singer - who also ended up helping out in the narration, and who also served as a visual show of the duality of Janis Joplin’s personality, she was the on stage personality. I wish I had found out the name of the singer because her voice was… amazing to say the least.

At a lot of the shows my buddy Kevin and I go to we end up being either the youngest or close to the youngest - we saw the Kingston Trio in Carmel-by-the-Sea a few years ago we were almost the youngest people in the crowd, save for a 7 year old that we were informed looked “none too happy to be there”, but because of that and a woman we met there (who ended up being the fiancée of one of the Trio) we got to meet the guys after the show. Of course, I really thought Janis was far from exclusive to the older crowd that these kind of events seem to generate. It was a very well put together show, with great narration and excellent singing.

Best musical I’ve ever seen.

-Tyler

Last Monday I started a summer English class so I’ll be working on writing for that a lot and probably won’t have the energy or time to write much here for the next 5 weeks. Hopefully I’ll improve my writing skills while I’m in this class. Unfortunately I have a few reviews I want to write that I probably won’t get to, but there’s a good chance I can at least start them and will have something to post a few days after my classes end.

Other unfortunates: I’m almost 100% that I won’t be going to Comic Con this year, which is a bummer - I was really looking forward to meeting R.K. Milholland, Jennie Breeden, and Felicia Day (with the rest of The Guild)

Even more unfortunates: one of my a-hole friends decided he’d be just that and give me a copy of WoW two days before I started my class. Well, I’m not addicted, but I can see it being a horrible timesink which is not good with the start of my English class. Bugger.

smoochies

-Tyler