don't click here

Show Posts - Crowbar


Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Crowbar

Pages: [1]
1
Wikkity! / I will not make the obvious joke about watching.
« on: March 09, 2009, 09:16:45 am »
So, Watchmen. Who saw it? I did, at the BFI Imax last night.

It was alright, about as good as I could've expected really.

I liked:
Dan, The Comedian, Rorschach, and Laurie were all pretty well portrayed, Dan in particular looked exactly as he did in the comic.
Uuuuh, it looked good?

I didn't like:
Standard Hollywood acting. very few of the readings of the lines felt natural (in particular, Jon's actor felt like he was going for an overly obvious "spaced-out" way of talking, which wasn't really reflected in the comic).
Sally Jupiter was too young and healthy-looking.
Adrian was a god-damn loser.
Too much fucking CGI. Every god damn shot.
That said, they could've used it to do the Comedian's scar properly. It just looked wimpy without extending his mouth.
I was sick of the FASTFASTFASTssssssssssllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooow style of editing action scenes by the end of 300. Is this Zack Snyder's "trademark" now?

These are mostly nitpicks, though. Overall it was decent.

2
General Sonic / Sonic: Night of the Werehog
« on: October 31, 2008, 09:45:19 am »
http://uk.movies.ign.com/dor/objects/14294754/sonic-night-of-the-werehog/videos/sonic_trailer_103008.html

Trailer for a "film" supposed to come out in Nov 2008. Presumably a short rather than a feature.

Looks stupid and pointless either way. I suppose there's the possibility that it'll be enjoyable in its stupidity, but I'm not holding out for anything better than Archie-fanfiction quality plot and writing.

3
CLICK HERE (.doc format, sorry, I fail and can't be arsed to convert it to html)

A couple of months ago I finished my Illustration and Animation degree. The dissertation I wrote for this (required in addition to the practical work we had to do) was on the subject of Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario, and basically why Sonic sucks now while Mario doesn't, but from a character, design, and narrative perspective rather than gameplay.

Before you laugh, no, this is in no way related to those topics we've probably all seen posted by stupid high school kids who "rely wnt 2 du a project on SAWNIICC!!1". I actually researched it (I spent a week just reading before I even decided on this topic), and everything I wrote is based on very, very thoroughly considered ideas. I got absolute top marks across the board from it, and they even kept a copy for the library archives. Am I a massive saddo for actually doing this even so? Of course I am. However, if, you're interested in such issues as those I present (P.P.A., I think you at least will get a kick out of it), please read it.

It's presented exactly as I handed it in (save that it's on-screen rather than printed), so bear-in-mind that there's lots of out-of-date stuff. There's also alot that I either couldn't fit in, or simply couldn't find adequate research material on (I really wanted a section on female roles in the two series). I actually tempted to put in the time and effort to fill those bits in at some point in the future, but we'll see

I figured I'd post this here because this is basically my only tie to the "Sonic Community" anymore, and this forum actually contributed somewhat to the development of this essay (check the acknowledgements, hurf durf). If any of you actually bothers to read all of this AND the 8000-odd words of the dissertation, thanks!

4
So all this year I've been progressively more and more in love with this girl I'm living with. It's been difficult to deal with for a number of reasons: apart from the fact that she doesn't feel the same way, she has alot of personal problems, has been into self-harming, I think was abused as a child (not by her parents, thankfully), can't stand being touched, and so on. In particular since her boyfriend broke up with her around this time last year she's been really messed up about him. It was bad enough when they were together, as she doesn't enjoy sex (certainly not with him, anyway), but he would still insist on it, and wouldn't give her the support she really needed, but the past six or nine months or so have been really rough. Long story short, he started using her for sex, and she knows it's hurting her but she lets him doing it because she feels she needs him or something (she's going on a big trip this summer after uni and is apparently worried none of her other friends will give her a place to stay afterwards, so maybe she's doing it to guarantee he'll take her in or something, I don't really know, it might just be a general feeling of dependance, he IS the only real relationship she's ever had).

This has, of course, been very hard on me. All this year I was the person she turned to when she was feeling miserable about him. In fact, several times after he seduced her (and even before then) she'd talk to me and say how much she hated him for doing it, and how she'd never let it happen again. And, in fact, after months of this, she decided she was going to break up with him properly, but he managed to weasel his way out of it. She promised me and herself that she was going to keep it just friends after this, that she'd spent too long feeling confused and insecure thanks to him, that she wasn't going to let him play her for a fool anymore, and that if he tried to get sex out of her again she'd tell him where to go. But a week ago she started sleeping with him again. This was the last straw for me. Up until that point I will freely admit to being jealous: I AM in love with her, and I do find her ridiculously attractive. However, when I found out about this time, all that faded. I was just angry, more angry than I'd ever been in my life, at him for doing this to her, and at her for letting him do it. I lost it, confronted her and shouted at her for it, and of course, I hit the nerve and she reacted badly, and has stopped talking to me. I've felt awful the past couple of days because of it, as I felt I'd pushed her away where I should've been supportive and receptive. I'd let my emotions get the better of me and had lost all the trust she'd placed in me over the past year.

And last night he was in again, and I knew he'd have got her into bed again (in fact, he's still in the house as I type this, it's the morning). And I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand to see her do this to herself, and I felt personally responsible, that because she hates me she might even be going further with him to spite me. I was literally standing in the kitchen with a knife at my wrists, wishing I could either kill myself or go into her room and kill him. And I'm not even exaggerating. I'd never felt so horrible about anything in my life. My first (only, lol) breakup was deeply traumatic, and I was depressed for about a year afterwards, but that was a purely selfish, internal feeling. It came purely from inside myself, and once I'd cried it out it was gone. But this came from something I couldn't even help anymore, as I'd destroyed any trust she'd ever placed in me. I'd already, literally, cried all the tears I had, and now I wanted to cry more but physically couldn't. I was begging God to help me, to give me the strength to deal with this, not because I'd ever been religious, but out of sheer desperation. I literally could not cope anymore.

Eventually I pulled myself together and decided to just go to bed (it was 3 in the morning at this point). I was getting ready, but just before I lay down, I felt an impulse, and sent a text to a mutual friend saying that her ex was destroying her life and I couldn't watch it anymore. A couple of minutes later, we're talking on the phone about it, and he's assuring me I'm right and not to take it personally (he's known her longer than I have), saying he's glad I called, as he hadn't spoken to her in a while and hadn't known exactly what was going on lately (though he'd always known the relationship was harmful), and saying that he'll call her today and arrange to meet up with her and maybe another friend, just for drinks, and he'll bring it up tactfully and talk to her about it, because he knows that she knows she's wrong, even if she told me it was none of my business. I'd spoken to friends about all this already, but it was always on a "Please help me deal with this" basis, rather than "Help me help her". I'd just never thought to ask that way.

And after we hung up, I felt more relieved than I'd ever felt in my life. All feelings of anger and sorrow had gone, and I just knew that somehow I'd get through it all, and with help from friends I'd help her through it. And I realised something I'd never expected. That what gave me that impulse to send that text...was God.

Now, I know some people will have closed the window there. But please bear with me. I've never been religious. I've always been sceptical of Christian dogma (still am, certainly until I read the Bible). And I'm not going to go all evangelical on you. But I realised that I'd had the whole "God" thing pegged wrong all my life, either because I've been given the wrong message or just given myself the wrong idea. I realised that God is strength: he's what helps you get through things that seem unbearable. He may not be a literal omnipotent, omniscient being in the sky; he may just be some intangible force; he may genuinely be something we've invented ourselves to deal with problems. But at the end of the day, I feel he's a name put to something that manifests differently for different people. And for me, in that instance, that strength that I'd begged for so desperately, that I'd bared my soul and literally prostrate myself in desperation of, was that mad impulse to send that text. It was my friends. My ability to depend on my friends. The qualities in me that have made me able to earn these friends. The qualities in my parents that made them raise me with these same qualities. And so on. And knowing that, I felt I could deal with anything.

As I said, I won't go all evangelical. I'm not going to start saying "You need to turn to God or you'll go to Hell!" For one thing, that doesn't work, and you can harp on about your "Duty to spread the word of God", but if it doesn't work you're just massaging your own ego. But also, I feel that when people say things like that, what they really mean is "You need to turn to my God". And I really, truly feel that God is different for different people. Of course, he'll manifest as friends for alot of people. But it'll be a different feeling for everyone. And for some it'll be strength from within. For some it'll be strength gained from a single other person. And, yes, for some it will be church and the traditional Christian teachings. What it is doesn't matter, all that matters is that it's found.

So I guess where I'm going with this, is that I hope somehow this story touches a few of you and makes you think a bit more about your lot in life. Think a bit more about what you've got and what, or who, you can turn to in times of need. You may think I'm spewing a load of crap, but as long as you find your "strength", even if you don't know it as "God", you'll have reached a certain stage in your life that I feel everybody should.

So yeah, sorry for those desperately hoping for a Bel-Air (it would've been pretty fucking epic), but I felt I needed to say this somewhere, even just a Sonic the Hedgehog forum. If you've read this far, thanks for your attention.

5
Wikkity! / Today I went skydiving.
« on: April 15, 2008, 12:45:57 pm »
So a bit over a week ago a female housemate of mine was drunk and we were watching stuff on the iBBC player or whatever it's called. We saw somebody zorbing, and got talking about how cool it was, and this led to her saying "We should go skydiving". A couple of days later we've actually booked it.

And today we actually did it.

There's really no words that can do justice to the sensation of being thrown (we were both doing tandem jumps with instructors) out of a plane at 13,000 feet. That moment of jumping and seeing the ground looming up below you with nothing in-between was probably the most intense thing I've ever experienced, with the following few seconds and seeing the plane disappearing upwards being a close second. You don't get your stomach jumping up into your mouth like you do with rollercoasters, the most accurate way I can describe the feeling is simply "falling". We were in freefall for about 45 seconds (down to 5,000 feet), and then the parachute was opened and we floated down for about 4-5 minutes. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day, though it was incredibly cold in the sky. I actually felt rather dazed for a while afterwards and had to lie down, but I'm definitely glad I did it.

Has anybody else ever engaged in any extreme sports?

[EDIT] Oh, also, I did actually get NOM with the Sonic Unleashed preview, but it turned out to be nothing new, even though they apparently did get an actual hands-on with it, so I didn't really feel motivated to post about it. They did say the werewolf sections were pretty cool, but there were no fucking pictures or real details beyond what you'd expect. Even the developer interview didn't turn up much beyond the fact that supposedly they went into the project with Sonic Adventure 3 in mind.

6
General Sonic / Best musical throwback ever.
« on: April 06, 2008, 11:47:32 am »
Did anybody else notice that Windmill Village Mode 3 and 4 from Sonic Rush Adventure are actually remixes of the options screen music from Sonic 3? (specifically the acapella part)

I think this is awesome.

I also recently realised that part of the Sonic Adventure Invincibility music is a tiny bit like the chorus of You Can Do Anything from Sonic CD.

(yes I know this is trivial and stupid and entirely not worth making a thread about but F U I'M BORED)

7
Gaming and Grazing / Diamonds in the Rough
« on: December 04, 2007, 05:55:05 am »
Are there any games (Sonic or otherwise) you really hate, but that have one single aspect you really like? If you've got any examples from media other than games that's fine too.

For me: I hate Shadow the Hedgehog as much as the next normal person, and find all the music in the game very forgettable...except I Am All Of Me. Holy hell that song is awesome.

Also, as much as I find Sonic 06 to be ugh, and Shadow as a character to be equally ugh, I kinda like Shadow in Sonic 06 for reasons I can't explain.

(I know this thread doesn't have much scope and probably won't get many replies but well who cares, really? :P)

8
Rules Revisions / S1 Megamix Freestyle rules clarification.
« on: July 05, 2007, 12:25:45 pm »
Use of Super forms is allowed for times in this division. Does this entail both with the Chaos Emeralds+50 rings and with S monitors? I'd assume yes, but I figure it should be made explicit (even if it is only freestyle...)

9
Leaderboard Disputes / KyleIsAwesome: what?
« on: June 06, 2007, 03:41:51 pm »
Going to the Sonic 1 rings page shows up a bunch of very obviously bullshit stats from a user "KyleIsAwesome", but going to his own stats page gives nothing. They're not apparently listed in the new stats either.

What gives?

10
Leaderboard Disputes / Azrael's Rush LS boss times?
« on: May 31, 2007, 01:53:17 pm »
http://soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_rush/bosses/leaf_storm_boss/sonic
http://soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_rush/bosses/leaf_storm_boss/blaze

Somebody who's more familiar with the mechanics of this boss/Rush's bosses in general PLEASE shoot me down if you know this is possible, but a lead like that looks fucking absurd. Especially given how much effort I know others put in to get what they already got.

11
There hasn't been a huge influx of bad guides lately or anything, but it'd be nice to be able to keep the useless information from diluting what's actually valuable.

I'd link to examples but I'm sure anybody who's been paying attention will know what I'm referring to.

12
http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_rush/bosses/night_carnival_boss/sonic

His comment leads me to believe that he made a typo entering the time (it's the kind of comment you make when you don't get a record).

If not, and that really is the time, then I'd kinda like to see a photo of the records screen (no more, I don't demand a video or anything). I'm not really calling BS as such, it's just that I coulda sworn my strat was the absolute best possible, and cutting 3 seconds off it just takes the cake. :( I'm just curious more than anything.

13
Competition Central / Help with videos? :(
« on: April 03, 2006, 07:44:14 am »
Uh, I'm gonna look very dumb asking this but I might as well. :|

I recently recorded a Rush video (posted it here). I'd like to submit it to the site but for two things:
1. The filesize, even though I compressed it and the resolution is small, is very large in comparison to other videos (32MB, where others of similar length are less than 15). I've got no experience with video compression so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I've got VirtualDub and ffdshow. Any help? :(
2. I got video submission authorisation from Rolk, but couldn't get the upload to work. Then I saw in the FAQ that vids over 2MB need to be "uploaded directly". What does that constitute?

Thanks for any help. =)

14
Hiya Folks / I guess I should actually introduce myself. >_>
« on: April 02, 2006, 08:58:33 am »
Hello.

I've been a Sonic fan since forever, and always loved the Mega Drive games. I felt let down by the Dreamcast-and-onwards offerings (though I do love them, I just think they're bad games, if that makes sense...well I love SA1 and SA2, Heroes can eat poo and I haven't bothered with Shadow), and by Sonic Advance (never bothered with 2 or 3), but Sonic Rush has caught my interest such that I'm actually bothering to TA it. Anybody who's been watching those rankings might have seen me causing some problems for everybody else (mostly Skylights since he was dominating heavily when I came in, though he, and, in fact, everybody else, seems to be on a big break right now). Hopefully I'll take the Times rankings. Failing that I can at least be a huge nuisance.

Whether I bother with Rings, Time Attack, Bosses, and Score remains to be seen (probably not tbh >_>).

I can also draw (though I didn't draw this avatar, sadly).

Hope I enjoy my time here. :D

Pages: [1]
Hits: 481 | Hits This Month: 2 | DB Calls: 8 | Mem Usage: 1.36 MB | Time: 0.14s | Printable

The Sonic Center v3.9
Copyright 2003-2011 by The Sonic Center Team.