Science Fiction Shows and Games/ Things Going On In Life

I haven't been posting here for a few weeks, partially due to my focus on my other blog, but I thought it would be nice to mix things up a bit.

Scifi Shows and Games

The second half of season one of Caprica is airing. I heard that the new episodes were going to be available in January, but I guess this show airs every fall. What I do like about it is that there are more female characters heroic roles than in Battlestar Galactica. I also like that it seems to cater to a female audience a bit more than BSG. I do not like that the show falls a bit short in some episodes. Later episodes will fix that. For some reason, I do see a bit of cliche in all the science fiction shows and movies. It seems like every last one of them has a sequel, a prequel or a major corporation is the source of all the problems humanity has with technology. I see this in the Matrix series, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica and some videogames. The whole sequel/prequel problem is in videogames as well and what makes videogames worse with this is the whole expansion pack turned full fledge videogame. I understand why Caprica/BSG fell into the cliches. Science fiction is a broad genre, but a writer/director can only go so far with it for the audience to understand the plot. I remember in the late nineties and early 2000's that movies and tv series about hackers and hacking were popular. When 9/11 happened the shows and movies about hacking such as Antitrust (movie), Matrix, Odyssey 5 (tv show) and Jake 2.0 fell out of popularity, movies and tv shows about terrorism became more popular. Directors of science fiction films and designers of science fiction videogames have been incorporating religion (cults), ethics and the apocalypse into their storylines. In Caprica, the religious themes and the question of ethics in a technologically advance society are common. It gives it a sort of Terminator reminiscence to the series. I give the show some credit for answering plot holes that the BSG reimagined series left.

Speaking of sequels, prequels and science fiction in the gaming world, I got a glimpse at the gameplay of Halo Reach. It was released on Sept 15, 2010. So far, out of honest, I want to say that the game is the most different from all the previous Halo installments by Bungie. I said by Bungie, because the real time strategy version of Halo is not made by Bungie but another gaming company instead. When school is over, I will post the history/ review of the Halo series and I will lend commentary to each game to determine which one is the best and the worst in the series. Halo Reach distinguishes itself from the other games because it is a direct prequel from the previous installments. I do not understand the whole idea of prequels and side stories to games. There are some gamers who love storylines. I understand. I am one of those gamers. I read the books also, except for the recently released books and the graphic novels. I still do not see a need for a prequel to a series that is almost eleven years old. I could be wrong about that. It could be the best videogame in the series.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will be released in a couple of weeks. This is a game that I plan on buying, more so than the newest Call of Duty Modern Warfare game. I decided to rent games, instead of collecting them due to financial costs. I am just too cheap to buy a new game that I may not play in a long time due to school. I think I chose this game to buy brand new over other games, because it's the most compelling. When I play Halo, I love the idea of shooting aliens on a planet in a remote part of the galaxy, but I also want to learn something. Videogames already have a bad reputation for being a time waster. Why not add a good story to a game? When I play Assassin's Creed and I watched the gameplay to the second installment, I was interested in its history. I wanted to know who the assassins were and the lives of the characters in that game. Fortunately, there's something called Wikipedia. Majority of the characters except for the main playable character and the npc Masayif are real people who once lived. Assassin's Creed 2 also has characters that once lived in real life. I did some research and the most interesting character so far is the womanizing Pope Alexander (Rodrigo Borja/Borgio). Answers.com said that he died of a severe cardiac arrest due to possibly being poisoned, but he was a Spanish pope, who acknowleged all of his illegitimate children while being in a position that requires celibacy. He was not considered to be a good person, nor a good pope. I'd guess he probably died of an unknown STD or something. Spaniards in history are portrayed in a bias light due to the influence they had on Western Europe and the discovery of the New World and their role in the Inquisition. The Spain was not the only country to have an Inquisition, because France, England and countries as far east as Poland and Russia had an Inquisition or something similar. I think Spain is also an easy target for bad portrayal because of  influence on the House of Tudor and the English monarchy during Henry VIII's rule.

I will be placing a game review for Halo Reach, Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood when I get a chance.

What's Going On In Life

Life is that four letter word that can have a strong, weak or neutral meaning. Today it's going to have a weak meaning, because not much is going on. Living in this city still sucks. Living off campus sucks balls, because of the place I chose to live, which made me hate this city. I went from loving this city in Spring 2009, to feeling indifferent and thinking it's better than living at home in Fall 2009 to actually loathing and considering moving back home when I stayed here over the summer a few months ago. Now I hate living here. Maybe if I lived closer to campus and/or had a roommate, I'd be a little happier. I have a kitchen where I live that I share with others, but also these walls are thin. My neighbor can hear my tv from the next room even on low decibel. Not to mention that I have evening classes and walking home can be a challenge because it's dangerous when you're a single woman alone at night.

If I could find an artist community here, in this city, I'd live there until I graduate from college. I considered going to another university at home and still live with my mom when she moves. There is an artist community in LA. I thought about trying to go there. What I really need to do is start making more artwork and present what I make to various galleries. Then again, I'm a very competive person. I have to stand out, because if I don't, I'll lose a sense of identity. The only problem I have with the artworld today is mediocre work is accepted because there is a need for an artist to make a name for himself or herself. I want to do work that is more compelling than what is in the average museum. I find pop art to be annoying. It's everywhere. Outside of school, including this winter I'll be working on my portfolio.

About going home to visit- My grandmother annoyed me so much that I'll only visit home as long as if she's out of town. She does not know this because if I told her, then she may never leave. She may end up staying home just so I would be forced to visit. I understand that there is this unwritten code of honor in most cultures and respecting your elder or the elderly is one of them. It's not that I do not love the older members of my family. It's the fact that I am now 25 years old and they still see me as someone incapable of making decisions due to them being way older. I think that if I start calling people out on the way they act toward me or the way they treat me then I'll feel better. I will be empowered. I think I'm going to start doing that.
10/30/10-10/31/10

I did not understand why I sleep in during the day until today when I had to get up early so I can pay the rent. The post office was closed, so ended up going to the bank for a money order. Professionals think that a chemical imabalance is a cause of depression, but I think it's boredom and loneliness. I know psychology majors who believe that changing a person's behavior is the be all end all cure for everything. That's like saying tea heals everything or water heals everything. I hope to get over myself soon and make my life more productive. When I feel bad, I sometimes go to an outing on my own such as the movies or a restaurant. I think on Wednesday or Friday I'll go to the movies and my favorite restaurant after (if they will still have me. I left my debit card in there, came back to get it and I'm not sure if they still want me there. Long story) instead of celebrating Holloween. Like Fourth of July, Holloween can be a dangerous holiday. If The Town is still playing, I'll watch that. If it's not, then I'll watch something else.