Mark McCulley

The Impossible

2012-01-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

I watched the new Mission Impossible. I laughed when I heard they were coming out with a new one. But then something strange happened. Everyone liked it. I haven't heard one bad thing about it yet. So I decided to go see it, because the first and third ones were pretty decent, though certainly not in my all time favourites or anything quite as prestigious as that.

It was fine. A little to action-y for me. I like plot and character development and things like that. Not that Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol doesn't have any of that, but...it's an action movie first and foremost. I personally found the plot a little too thin, and, as in all good action movies, the antics and stunts sometimes a little too far fetched, but overall it was a solid movie. Basically, the orgaization Ethen Hunt works for is framed for bombing the Kremlin and they set out to stop a nuclear extremist from launching a nuclear missile. It's a mission so complicated, so difficult it's nearly...IMPOSSIBLE!

The best scene is the hallway scene. I won't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it. Simon Pegg is probably the main highlight of the movie, plus, if you were a fan of the Third installment in the series, you will find yourself treated at the end of Ghost Protocol, though only slightly.

My MMO virginity was taken recently by Star Wars The Old Republic. I will give you the short version of that review and just say, it's not as good as the either of Knights of the Old Republics. It lacks almost everything that made them feel great, with a few marginal improvements here and there. I'll still be be playing it for a couple months, methinks, but only because: 1) I'm a completionist who wishes to reach the end of the story, 2) I like Reven and wish to know what happened to him/her, and 3) this game has so much potential that I REFUSE (in the face of great evidence to the contrary) to see it as a wasted effort. By the way, I hate every company involved in making this game. They have money, but little inspiration or talent. And even that wouldn't be bad if they listened to their fans, but I have not witnessed anything like that yet. These companies used to be good, but I think they just got lazy...with a few exceptions. Anyways I'll write more on that later maybe.

For now, goodnight. And feel free to tell me how your Christmas was.

Summer List

2011-04-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Summer is drawing nigh. I think should nighing should be a word so I will use it there. Summer is nighing to us and here in Oklahoma that means it's getting too warm too quickly. So very soon I will need to go out and do Summer things...while it's still spring.

So perhaps, says you, the blogger of this magnificient and always up-to-date blog should make a list. WEll that IS a good idea, thankyou for suggesting it to me!

But I'm no good at lists, so this will really more of a random run down.

1) See the baby elephant at the zoo. Yeah I know. Kind of cool right? baby elephants aren't born every day, and it will be good to take this rare opportunity to see a wrinkly grey hopefully energetic ball of sagging skin do things. I'm expecting it will be more exciting than grown up elephants, which are a short cry from a statue. Still marvelous to look at, but perhaps not the most lively exhibit the zoo has to offer.

2) Go to that theme park nearby. I've been there when it's summer before and it's just an all around bad idea. You sit on the ride and nearly slip out of the roller coaster because someone else's butt sweat has left a one inch deep puddle for you. Ew. No thanks. So I'll have to do this summer activity while it's still spring too.

3) Become a mongoose.

4) Realize by the end of summer that this is impossible, but use the money you gathered from research grants to go by some ice cream.

5) See the movie Arthur. I keep saying I'm going to go see it...but it takes so much time...and so much money...and then I have to match my schedule with the theater's and actually put on pants to go out...it'll be a while before this goal gets checked off. But seriously (as if I wasn't being serious about the pants thing), I do want to see that movie. I feel like that guy was born to play Willy Wonka and if for no other reason to satisfying my curiosity about said Wonka possibilities, this movie will be worth it.

6) Get a dog. I like dogs. They're friendly and they have tails that wag so you know they're happy. What's not to like?

7) finish my book. I always talk about it, but never do it. I've actually been contemplating setting up a schedule to make sure I do it after work. But I think...won't that be like work after work. EW!...even though I know I'll enjoy it if I just make myself crack open the dusty pages for ten minutes. This doesn't have to be done in summer, of course, but realistically speaking I don't think I'll get around to finishing it by the end of Spring.

8) Buy another hermit crabb. There are currently two, but one never does anything, so the other guy, Frito, must feel very lonely. They are supposedly very social animals despite the name.

Well I was going to make this a list of ten things, but finishing the list will have to be number 9 and 10 for things to do this summer. How can I make that two goals and not just one, you ask? Easily. 9) Make list two items longer. 10) add 2 to 8 to make sure math is correct. Walah!

Peace out Home slice!

Movies, depression, change, this post has it all!

2011-04-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

Diary update! Well, I got a new entertainment center...scratch that, AN entertainment center. The grand difference being that now the tv doesn't sit on the floor. Also a washer and dryer. Every time a new article of furnishment enters this place I feel like I'm growing up a little more. It's weird. And not entirely in a good way.

Much has happened since my last update. Most of it boring, but snippets here and there are worth mentioning. I hurt my back at work lifting, get this, empty boxes. I can try to excuse the non manly injury by saying true things like, "I was moving the week before and lifted a lot of heavy stuff", and...well I HAD another excuse, but now I don't remember what it was.

Yeah, I moved. And two weeks after that my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came to visit. They're pretty cool, but it's still nice to have the house back to its less crowded state.

I just finished watching Aemelie for those who are interested. I recommend it to those people who like Pushing daisies and quaint cutesy little things. It's a french film, so the whole thing is sub-titled, which I don't mind as long as I'm not eating...which I was. When you eat and try to watch sub-titled films you can't read every single line because you're constantly trying to steal quick bites here and there and looking away to do so or else chewing which moves your head up and down enough that it complicated reading. I didn't love the film, but it had an interesting style and now my curiosity about the film has been satisfied. All in all it was enjoyable, but I probably won't watch it again of my own free accord for a while.

I've been having weird bouts of depression lately. Usually when I feel really depressed it lasts for at least a couple days and can last a couple months. But lately it's just been coming upon me full force for about eight hours or so and then drifting away. It's weird.

I wish I could say that I'm used to it by now. But I'm not. It always brings with it a sense that I've fallen into some deep long rut. I begin to wish for a change...any change. Which is odd because I did just move after all. Sure it was just twenty minutes away, but you'd think that would be enough. But still, when the mood hits me, I just feel like changing my life in some grand, perhaps even reckless, way. Of course, I'm a thinking man, so I always try to reason my out of it. I think about how my life is pretty good right now. But the thought persists and I find myself wondering how things would be if my life had never changed. Granted, it's hard to say I ever WISH my life hadn't changed. I guess every change within the last couple years has been pretty good across the board. I mean, what would be better about the way life was? Living with my parents? No thankyou. They're cool enough, but I'd rather not live with them if I had a choice. It's nice to do what you want when you want and there's a certain weird pride in drinking the milk you bought all by yourself. No...I can't think of one thing I'd truly change if given the chance, but still, the nostalgia does persist.

I've been thinking of becoming a super hero for a while. I sort of know someone through someone else that is about as close to being a real life super hero as you can realistically imagine. That person and Aemelie inspired me. I've been thinking about how cool it would be to just go around and do random acts of good. I haven't quite worked out what yet, but I have a few ideas. I couldn't really fight criminals because I don't have the fighting skills or the confidence/bravery, but being a do-gooder would be cool. I might really go do one of these days. I even have a lame little nickname worked out. I won't tell you though, because then what would be the point of having a secret nickname if you knew who was behind it?

But I have a million projects in my mind. Most never even get off the ground. The ones that do rarely land again and I'm really not certain how intact they've returned. My Machinima project is still alive and well in my mind, but the constraints are expected to be long lasting, so no news on when it'll actually begin, let alone hit your ocular nerves. In the mean time I really should work on my book, but I just haven't. I could do a chapter tonight, but I'm not certain I want to be up that late...well...excuses are always a million strong aren't they...

Anyways, I hope my probably nonexistent reader(s) is/are doing well. Overall I'm quite fine, thankyou. I think I'll be signing off now. Bye bye!

-Mark

Vacation!

2011-01-28T20:21:00.001-08:00

I will be gone for a little over a week. Me, the wife, and twelve other people are all going on a cruise courtesy of my fabulous uncle. By the way, Uncle, if you see this, THANKYOU!

So tomorrow half of us must start the long 12 hour drive to New Orleans. My iPod is currently charging, needless to say.

My brother's awesome video game is coming along nicely. I used mixcraft4 to make him some amazing (and obviously amateur) sound affects. Hmmm...did I just use the word? Effects affect... I can usually use effect right, but if I use affect it's wrong about half the time.

Anyways, if you swing by in a few days and wonder why I haven't updated in a week, well...I never update that regularly, so go away. But at least this time you know why I haven't.

Toodles,
Mark

Making a Game

2011-01-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

One of my older brothers is making a game. It involved being a wizard and killing dragons so far, but more will be added.

I'm excited about this for many reasons. I love video games. I love animation (though I've never seriously tried it). And, as I've recently discovered, I love watching people program things. It sounds boring-- sitting down for a couple hours stright just to get a dragon to breathe fire the correct distance-- and in reality it probably would bore most people. But I am fascinated at the method of programming. I really understand next to nothing except that after typing ++=50; or some such, suddenly your dragon will be breathing fire more rapidly than before...if you happen to have similar lines of code to add a dragon in at all, and even more to animate him, and then even MORE to make him follow a wizard around and somehow know what distance is good to start vomiting fire balls. It takes an amazing amount of work to get a bad graphics dragon to breathe graphics fire. I guess that's part of the appeal to me, somehow. I like watching other people work their butts off to make something cool I will enjoy. And I like the look of excitement on their face when the two hours of programming finally pays off in the way they expected it to. It gives me all the satisfaction of having programmed something myself, without having to actually do anything except my eyes open and my hand in a bag of Cheetos. Extraordinary!

My brother asked me to help. I agreed. I feel bad. Not because I can't help, but because so far I have done diddly squat (awesome word combo of the day?). I'm supposed to create some spells and maybe edit a few images to make them look just write. I cannot create images of four hundred varying-colour pixel characters that resemble each other, so animating my own creations would be stupid. But I can erase staffs, or move a fifteen pixel foot three pixels over. My Paint skills are radical. I can use the pencil and eraser in paint! Imagine that! What skill!

I also offered to try to make a theme song if he wanted one for this splendid game. My mother's other fruit of her womb said that would be completely fine. I will oblige...some day. I keep telling myself there isn't any rush anyway. This thing will take at least couple of months to program, probably more. But then it's hard to program a wizard game with the wrong images, no spells, and no sound. Ah well, another few weeks shouldn't hurt, right?

Anyways, I've been talking for some time about making a machinima. That is on hold. Only because my tv doesn't have a video output which, as I understand it, is essential to my preferred method. I also want to finish editing my book and and finally send it off to the publishers. Oh and there are things I promised to do for that video game...oh...and I'll be moving soon. OH, and also, I'm lazy. It's a wonder I'm still alive. I let a mountain of things that actually consider fun to pile up because I procrastinated so much. I shudder to think what the procrastination of things I actually hate looks like.

Well, I'm off to do things other than blog. If you ever wondered what I do during the long stretches between blog entries, now you know: procrastinate.

Is This My (Manly) Journal?

2010-12-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

This blog is practically my journal I've noticed. Except without the privacy most journals provide. It is, however, too manly and irregular to be considered a diary. I mean, did you read that post about muscles and fixing up classic cars and sports and my barroom fights? Talk about MANly!

I don't really have anything to say. I just felt like letting the world know I'm still here. I cut my finger at work today. That's about the manliest thing that's happened all week. Now I can show off my large paper cut and say, "Got that baby just the other day when I simultaneously body building and putting a Hemi in my car. Right in the middle of doing that and thinking about putting out forest fires, a thief tried to steal my money. Don't worry though, I did a kung fu kick to his throat and he went down. Then I turned him in for the bounty. This cut is where his knife nicked me when I forced it from him."

Yeah, I'm manly alright.

New Computer

2010-11-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

New computers are awesome, right? I ordered a new HP Pavilion quad core laptop the other day. It actually arrived one day before they said they would build it, which still felt like a long time, but I have to admit it was good service. Some people might wonder why a guy who doesn't really play video games on a laptop needs a quad. I actually need it for making music. Have you ever spent 20, even 40 plus hours making a song only to realize there is no possible way to play back all 12 loops AND record vocals because your computer is an old party pooper? It's no fun. So now I should be able to do all that.

The worst thing about a new computer is trying to save all the data from the old one to the new one. Luckily my old laptop decided it wanted to recognize my flash drive yesterday, so I moved a lot of stuff to my new computer, but it'll take a while before I get all the important stuff.

Anyways, now that I have this new unit of magic in my life, I am better equipped to perform my hobbies without being impeded by old technology. I still want to get word perfect for my writing, maybe even Mixcraft 5 since I'm using 4. I'll probably get good movie editing software at some point for that machinima I've been talking about. So all in all...even though I spent tons of money, that cash seems to want to suck even more out of my bank account. It's like a cash shaped black hole.

Guster's new album was okay. Not their best, but it had a few pretty solid tracks on it, plus some other stuff that was just fine. I was a bit disappointed, but I suppose it was still worth the money.

Beyond that, not a whole lot is happening in my life. I'll be going, methinks.

Bye!
Mark

Plant's vs. Zombies

2010-10-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

Go buy Plants vs. Zombies. It's one of the best games out there. It makes my top 20 list for sure and maybe even my top 10. For those who don't know what it is, I will expound upon this further. You play the role of...well...yourself. Your house is being attacked by zombies and you get to plant all sorts of vegetation about your yard. This vegetation consists of about 25 different types of plants that all have unique offensive or defensive abilities. You get pea shooters and frozen pea shooters, spike weeds and walnuts (tough obstacles), potato mines and cherry bombs, etc.
There are also just as many types of zombies as there are plants. Regular slow-moving zombies, touch bucket-head zombies, zombies on Zambonis, zombies wearing rubber duck floaties, etc. All have their own unique abilities weaknesses and strengths.
Of course, not everyone enjoys strategic defense. Most game types fall into this category, but there are also mini-games to earn, such as walnut bowling, where you roll walnuts at the cartoon zombies to knock them down before they get into your house to eat your brains (which is never actually shown, just heard). You can buy upgrades from Crazy Dave's car trunk, and there are multiple gardens to cultivate. This game has almost endless game variations, it seems, so there is something for almost everyone while remaining simple enough for ten year olds to play and complicated enough for experienced gamers. The Xbox version (available only by download) includes a verses version which I have yet to play.
So go buy it. It costs $20 to attain more fun than almost any brand new $60 game.
To close, I want to say a few things on other subjects. Guster's album "Easy Wonderful" comes out tomorrow (Tuesday the 5th of October, 2010). I want to buy it, but I have about a trillion things on my wish list at the moment. For one thing, I still plan to make a machinima as I mentioned in an earlier post, which will cost many much moolah. I want to get Fable 3 and The Force Unleashed 2, Season 5 of Supernatural, and pretty nearly everything else under the sun it feels like. Also I just two burritos in Tomato tortillas. If you haven't tried that then you haven't yet experienced a life worth living. I'm off to bed. Have a delicious night and an even more delicious day.

Signed,
Murry...but not really.

Title

2010-08-28T14:55:00.001-07:00

So this'll be short. Sorry I haven't updated in forever. I finally got internet again, so maybe, just maybe, I'll actually write on here semi-annually.

Weezer's coming out with their third album in three years. Next month, Hurley, is released to the world. I'm sure all Weezer fans know this, but I'm pretty excited. I liked the last couple of albums. They weren't my favourite, but they weren't the worst. At the very least they were fully entertaining and I expect much of the same from Hurley.

Guster releases "Easy Wonderful" the month after. I'm more excited for this album. It's been around five years since their last one, to my recollection, so it's about time. Plus "Easy Wonderful" has to be about the most amazing album name ever. It's so uplifting, I just want to smile while saying it. I listened to two of the songs on there and they sound pretty uplifting, so here's to hoping the rest of the album is amazing. I've never known them to be a depressing band anyways (overall), so that's something.

I'm also looking into making a Halo: Reach machinima. It'll be total crap, of course, when you consider my lack of ANY experience with film making, next to my extremely limited lack of gaming skills and overall knowledge of Halo. Plus I don't consider myself much of an amazing writer, though unbiased people like my wife and mom tell me otherwise. It'll be scriptwriting too, which I've never even attempted. But doing stuff like this makes me happy. Some people like to suround themselves with friends, or boyfriends/girlfriends, or paint, or work on cars to find happiness. I just like writing stories and music, and I love watching movies. This involves ALL of that! So as you can imagine I'm working pretty hard to hold in the pee at the moment. Okay I'm not really THAT excited.

Anyways, toodle pip. I'm gone.

Half Life 3

2010-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

So I found a picture for the upcoming game Half Life 3, though maybe it will be called Half Life 2: Episode 3. There's really no way to tell as it's still in development. I remember playing through Half Life 2 and being impressed with the graphics. And, mind you, I played it for the first time two years after it came out. How the graphics were STILL better than anything out there, I shall never know. Now this screenshot might be a hoax, since pictures that get leaked often are, but it has that Half Life feel to me and it's has the amazing graphics that I would expect out these guys. Even it's fake, it's just a nice picture. There are ducks in a pond and a couple boat houses and row boats and such. If you want to see it just click on the title of this blog. I inserted the link, so it should work.

How Rude

2010-05-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Rudeness is an odd thing. It sometimes coincides with immorality, in the case of purposefully saying something mean solely to cause of harm to an individual's emotional state. On other occasions though it coincides with nothing, as is the case when you accidentally insult someone by, for instance, telling the truth. So it seems odd to me that we created a word with such a meaning that is unattached from morality.

What is rudeness' purpose then, if not to call into the light immorality? It seems when we take offense at something and say, "How rude!" (or some such variation there upon) it's translation is, "Well that annoyed me. I am going to dislike you because you annoyed me, possibly unwittingly, but who cares?" That doesn't seem like quite the right spirit to take. Yet every day people call each other rude. It's as if our annoyance is exused by calling the other person's action or actions "rude". Slap that label on it and we are home free. No need to be forgiving; we may feel entitled to our petty annoyance at their "rude" table manners, or "rude" accidental wording of a sentence.

That isn't to say when we call people rude this our only motivation. Sometimes they really were rude. For instance when they called us a name that was INTENDED to hurt our feelings. But the intention is (or should be) the real issue, not the action. Even then we are not justified in being unforgiving. And, really, in this case "rude" really means "immoral". So we should take offense at immorality, perhaps, but not rudeness. I feel like this word is purposeless, for we eaither mean to say their intent was imorral or else we are excusing our own immorality. I'm going to try to use it less.

That's what I've been thinking about lately. One of the things anyways. I also looked up the universe amd time travel in Wikipedia. I learned next to nothing about those two, but it was still interesting. Anyways, I've got to get back to things. Laters! (I shiver at my awful last word usage).

- Me

Oh Life

2010-04-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Not much going on in my world. I'm grateful for that, though from time to time it's kind of boring. I've been thinking a lot lately about God's existence. Not if he does or does not exist, but what the implications are on life either way. I am trying not to concern myself with what is true. That tends to only confuse me. I'm instead looking at it from a more or less, if this was the case then what what would naturally follow. It's interesting and I think it might be more productive in certain ways. I've also been thinking about politics. Not in a who-should-I-vote-for or that-law-seems-crappy sort of way. Just how I would do things if I could choose how. I think I'm actually going to invent my own fictional country and write down a list of laws. I shall try very hard to forget about what most countries are based on or what people think is fair and just write down what seems right. Once I get enough laws written down maybe I'll start a Facebook page for my non-existent country. I'll have to tackle difficult things though, like policies on immigration and torture and abortion and wellfair. Of course anything can work in theory, but practice is where it gets hard. If anybody out there has awesomelicious laws they would like to see put into affect just tell me and I'll consider adding them.

Okay I'm going now. Life might be slow, but that doesn't mean I have nothing to do at all. I'll publish a longer blog later. By "later" I mean sometime after now. It's a pretty broad term, so it's an easy promise to make, but I hope to fulfill this soon.

Smiley face,
Mark

Splinter Cell: Conviction

2010-04-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Splinter Cell: Conviction. I bought it the day it came out. I loved the first two, though I never played the third. But still, this one looked alright, so I risked it. I've only played the first level so far, so you'll be hearing a more detailed account later, but for now I do have a few things to say. It's alright. I mean, Splinter Cell was ultra awesome semi-realistic stealth game before. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sneak around CIA headquarters? Well lucky you, they got the actual floor plans and created a level out of it! Ever wanted to see an oil rig up close and personal? You got that too. In other words, they had great locations that you and I will never get to see in real life. I hear you get to see the oval office later in Conviction, so that'll be great, but overall there is nothing special about sneaking around a city that looks like every other city and a horribly laid out mansion. They also removed a lot of the stealth elements that I so loved from the first couple games. The cover system is weird, and it's mostly used for taking cover in firefights. Firefights, for anyone who's played the first couple games, were rare to nonexistent before. These games used to be realistic like that. You weren't a one man army, you couldn't confront ten people at the same time and survive. It was just impossible. You hid or you died. In this one, so far, that seems like all it's been. Firefight after firefight, with swarms of enemies. The story is more unbelievable. Sam Fisher is more unbelievable as a character. Overall, the game is just unbelievable. And not in a god way. But all this is just in comparison to the first two games. If you remove them from the equation and are content to simply look at Conviction by itself, you will find an engaging enough game. The graphics are pretty good, the controls are decent (though not better than that), the plot is alright, the action is fun. It's an okay game, just don't think of what it could have been or what the franchise used to be.

Toodle Oo, my blog readers. I shall post again later.

- Mark

Clash of the Titans

2010-04-08T09:10:00.001-07:00

I watched Clash of the Titans and I will soon get to that, but first I should address something else.

I recieved an e-mail recently from someone at my work telling me to be careful about mentioning that I update my blog from work because people have gotten fired for it before. They told me I should probably just edit out the parts where I talk about being at work. Firstly, thankyou person, for notifying me and being concerned with my job's welfare. However, I'm not going to edit anything out. If I get fored for it, I get fired for it, and I'm okay with that. I only update my blog on break, which I have been lead to believe after watching other coworkers surf the net, is perfectly acceptable. There have been a couple times that I updated my blog and wasn't on break, I admit openly. But these times I thought it would be okay because literally all of my work was done and I has asked my team lead if there was anything else I could do and he said he didn't have anything. I kind of thought that as long as my work gets done and there is nothing else for me to do then it should be okay if I update my blog. It isn't as if it's getting in the way of my work performance. I am willing to sit here and do absolutely nothing but stare at a blank screen if that is what my work asks of me, but I assume they are kind enough not to subject me to that. So that's it. If my work really wants to fire me for this then so be it. I'm not hiding the fact that I'm occasionally updating my blog from work during break or when all of the work has been exhausted.

Now, Clash of the Titans: it was made of epic failure. Just don't go see it. Really. I went with three other people and they all agreed. I mean, okay, epic failure is harsh. It was just lame. It wasn't GOOD, and certainly leaned toward the bad, but it wasn't terrible. Ralph Fiennes was terrible though. I loved him in "In Bruges", but as Hades he was just aweful. He gets two thumbs down. He wasn't scary, and didn't seem powerful, and his wig was one of the worst ones I've ever seen. Raph Fiennes, I am ashamed of you.

Anyways, I am currently at work updating this blog. :) I have four minutes left on break. I may go coax a cherry coke out of the vending machine with a shiny quarter as bait. Have a good day, you, and above all don't see Clash of the Titans.

The Other Side

2010-03-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

I just wrote a blog criticizing certain types of christians recently. Now for a look at the other side. It's only fair, right?

This is for the people who are athiests or agnostics or anything similar. Not ALL non-christians, just certain certain types.

I read an article only a few minutes ago about Heaven. It was okay. You would think that if you're going to submit a piece of your article that is an excerpt from your upcoming book you might actually do a lot of research as to what Heaven is. Instead of looking into the books that refer to Heaven they just talked about what people generally think about it as interpreted through culture. People, as a general rule, seem to not study up on what they believe (and I'm not claiming I'm better), so why their beliefs in any way determine Heaven, I don't know. I would have looked at the Books where they say they get their beliefs about Heaven, but that's just me. I mean, instead of seeing what the average high schooler thinks Shakespeare was talking about, why not actually read Shakespeare for yourself? I'm all for asking other people what they think, but let's not ignore the source they claim to get their thoughts and views from.

Anyways, that's all sort of off topic. What I really wanted to talk about was a comment left at the end of the article. It pointed everyone to a website that's purpose seemed to be to dissuade people from believing in God. I just don't get it. If you don't believe in God, fine. But why do you have to act like you must convince everybody else there isn't one? If you really wanted to just get the truth out there I could understand. But typically these posts seem to be borne out of mean spirited feelings. In that case it's not about the truth. You just want to cause them grief.

I understand that's not the sole reason for all of this. I understand maybe you are angry at religious people because some of them have been mean to you. But this won't solve anything. It will just cause more problems. There is just no excuse to point it out if you're going to argue about it, rather than discussing it rationally.

And even then, I don't see why you have to point it out. I mean, why do you feel it's your responsibility to take away someone's hope and joy and reason for morality in this life. If they are using this belief to cause you pain, then yes take it away. But gently. Not out of anger or some sense that you have the all the answers. You hate it when a religious person acts the same way.

So, assuming the person is well meaning and isn't trying to lord over you by using their religion, what is the point of trying to take it away? You will not have made their life, or your own, any better. Now, if they are trying to lord themselves over you by way of religion or cause you grief, then I submit they aren't really practicing what they preach (as far as Christianity goes anyways). So trying to change their beliefs won't accomplish anything. They just want power and feel religion gives them that. So I suggest ignoring them.

And that's what it comes to. Either let it be, or completely ignore it. There is little room for anything else.

- Mark

In Response to Littlelion

2010-03-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

I apparently am no good at communicating. This isn't really news to me, but it may be to you if you are someone who doesn't personally know me pretty well. I tend to dumb things down much much to much or assume the reader knows much more than actually do. One day I shall find this balance between making them feel dumb, I hope, and supplying all the information that is needed.

So, Littlelion, I have written (or rather am writing) a direct response to your comment, which, I should add, is very much appreciated.

You said you feel the real problem with Christians is not following "the rules", but is actually not being real about their humanity. I agree. I am somewhat at a loss as to why you added this. I, in now way, intended to say anything to the contrary. I was not saying "Follow the rules or else". I understand people will make mistakes and that mistakes should be forgiven. But my blog was not written about Christians who make mistakes once in a while. It was written about Christians who habitually live in a state of sin and make excuses as to why it is completely acceptable and fine with God. I did not say "never make mistakes". I said practice what you say you believe. To act as if you don't make mistakes, as a Christian, is not acting like a christian. The Bible seems to indicate that you will mess up time and time again. So to act as if you never mess up is another way of disregarding what the Bible has to say, and therefore not what I am advocating.

You said, "As for your statement on being accepting of gays...wow. You can still love a person without advocating their sin. In fact, by accepting them you may give them the strength to seek the truth. Sin is nursed by solitude. Community brings things out into the open...perhaps all they need is someone who sees them as they are and still loves them." I should have been more clear. I am sorry for any misunderstanding on the subject. I did not mean you should not accept them as they are. I'm pretty sure God accepts us as we are and he is the ultimate example, correct? I agree that you should love them as a person and not shun them. I did not intend to communicate anything except that you should tell them their sin is acceptable to God. They as a person are acceptable. Their sin is not. I was trying to speak out to the Christians who practice that being homosexual is not a sin.

You also added "I also don't know where you are seeing all of these drunk, high, gay Christians but they are a minority. They do exist, but you exaggerate." I guess this one is tricky. If I said they abound in the trillions (obviously I'm exxaggerating and I hope you understand my point) then I am sorry. I spoke incorrectly. I did not mean to say say, or insinuate, that most or all Christians are like this. I cannot say they are in the minority. I have not taken any kind of actual census on the matter, or done actual research as to their exact numbers or percetages. Percentages. But the fact is, they exist. I know some of them and have been told stories of many more. I also suspect their are lots more that I don't know anything about. Perhaps they exist in small numbers, but that doesn't make them any less worthy of addressing. I cannot pretend my little blog will change everything, but I hope to inspire someone else to stand up to them as well, and perhaps to encourage them to discuss it with me. I just got tired of being silent on the matter. And I think they aren't a minority, as you suggest. I know lots of Christians, not saying you don't. I was in a strong Christian family and my Dad went to seminary and became a pastor of a church when I was 13. I know more Christians than non-Christians by far. I see a trend in Christianity that leads more and more to believe that acceptance (of sin, not the individual) is the ultimate good. Even so, perhaps it's a minority. I am addressing this minority then.

"I think it is convenient that you stand in judgment yet can't be called a hypocrite because you're 'agnostic'. Would you be any less agnostic if we Christians were perfect? Would that be appealing to you?" I guess I'm not sure what you are getting at. I am judging, yes. Who cares. Is my judgement wrong? My judgement is that you should at least attempt to live by what you say you believe. You can hold me to that as well. I am ready to be judged by my own standard, and I'm sure I fall short sometimes too. When I do, feel free to call me out on it. I have no problem with that and see no reason you should either. I guess, as far as the "perfect Christian" aspect of your sentence goes, No, I have no problem with a perfect christian if they really are just that. But where did I give any indication that I looking for perfect Christians? I think you will find my blog devoid of such remarks.

As for being Agnostic and your claim that it is "convenient", I have this to say: Is living in fear that you will either 1) die and go to Hell, or 2) live by moral rules when their was no purpose for them, actually convenient? I suppose no one thinks their own beliefs are convenient, but I don't see how mine is. I did not say being non-religious makes you free of God's judgement. But if you don't believe in God then how can you live as if His judgement affacts you? I try to live in a Christian way, seeing as how I don't know if there is a God or not and I would not like to one day find out there is one and have to look back at a life that is far worse than it easily could have been.

"I prefer that Jesus death truly mean something. If he died for a way of life that was fairly sustainable even without his help, what a waste of his blood." Who isn't? And what does this have to do with my blog? 'Nuf said.

"We are all deserving of judgment but certainly not from you." Why can't I point out that it is wrong? If they truly believe it's okay then I am inviting discussion as to why it's okay. If it's wrong then someone should point it out, wouldn't you agree? If my blog is wrong, which you apparently thought it was, then you shouldn't you point it out? Oh wait, you did? :) Judging whether or not something needs to be pointed out and then doing so if necessary, is obviously okay. I am not condemning you or anyone else to Hell. I will leave that to God. But pointing out that God actually DID say something to people who need it pointed out, seems, in my eyes, to be no great at all. If my writing appeared to be anything more than I am sorry.

"If a homosexual truly desires a relationship with Christ and wants to spend the rest of their life trying to resist temptation, thats something quite beautiful." AMEN!!! Seriously. I agree.

"It sounded like you were wanting someone to argue with you. There you go." Well now we come down to the end of it. I have a few things to add. First of all, if you are trying to argue with someone, especially as a christian, I would encourage you to be less accusatory. I would not tell them that they seem to only want to argue. It just made me mad and made me want to ignor you. I'm quite confident that is not what you wanted. In the end, I decided to be more grown-up than i felt and pull my big-boy panties and write you in a nice way, because, after all, you meant no harm and just wanted to correct something that you thought was wrong. I admire that. That's what I was trying to do. So pats on the back for that, and I encourage your courage. :) But be careful. I should take my own advice too. I should try to be nicer, I guess, and that is not the spirit in which I wrote my previous blog entry. I apologize to everyone who might read it if I came across as mean spirited, but I stick to what I actually meant when I wrote it. You should practice what you say you believe.

Again, I am ever so sorry for any misunderstandings. I will try to be more clear in the future. I accept full responsibility and I do apologize. Have a great day, and as always, please write me if you have any issues with my blog entries or anything anything...even if you just want to talk about nothing in particular. If you don't want to leave a comment for some reason, please e-mail me at markmcculley@live.com

Until next time,
The Markinator

Something Different

2010-03-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like writing about something a little different today. I usually write about very light hearted, entertainment oriented things. Today I would like to talk politics and religion. But I'm going to sugar coat this and not come down on any particular side of the fence. The ironic things is, thing I write this about specific people who would probably nod in agreement if they ever read this and say "That's right! You preach it, Mark! Preach it to 'em GOOD!!!" It's all so futile. Still I must try.

I guess I'm just tired. Tired of people saying something and not practicing it. That's just people for you, though. The problem is, Christians aren't allowed to be people. It's funny. Everyone says stuff and does the opposite. Mostly we just shrug our shoulders. But Christians are different. They are held accountable. Which is good, I think. After all, if anyone should follow through it should be those who say they were told to do something by someone else who they claim knows everything about everything... and that includes everything about us.

I'm tired of Christians getting drunk. It's almost standard practice for Christians to get drunk these days. There isn't even a need to hide it. I don't think the Bible says you can't drink. In fact it says quite clearly that you CAN drink. But it also quite clearly not to get drunk. How can Christians get drunk all the time and not have a problem with it?

And getting high. Even if the actual affects of the drug aren't harmful to our bodies, many of the verses that talk about how we shouldn't be drunk and should be in control of ourselves could readily be applied here.

Along similar lines, taking care of your body is taught and rarely followed by most Christians. I mean, how many of us are guilty of gluttony? (Thanksgiving, anyone?) And what about smoking all the time. It obviously is damaging your lungs unless you're smoking like...never. (yes, "never" is an exaggeration".) Yet how many Christians smoke packs of cigarettes every month?

And why are Christians becoming so accepting of gays? Lots of gay people even claim to be good Christian people. I mean, it pretty clearly states that it's a bad thing. When it says that it's an abomination for one man to lay with another man, it's hard to misinterpret that. Okay it's not so hard. It's actually rather easy to misinterpret most things if you want to. But taking it as you would if any other person said that it's clear. If I said, "Sleeping with the same sex is bad", you have to assume that I meant, *gasp* sleeping with the same sex is bad. and unless I say otherwise later on, it's probably a good assumption that I still believe that. I won't get into all the cultural and other-time implications, but when something is stated so clearly, it would have to be stated fairly clearly again for me to abandon the believe the God doesn't intend us to follow that.

Now you are probably assuming that I am a self-righteous, condescending Christine right about now. I'm agnostic. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I don't even know if I believe in God. So I am not saying I am good and you are sinners. I can't say I believe this stuff. But I am saying I believe if you say you believe the Bible then you should act on what the Bible says. And I'm not a sinless person by biblical standards either. I'm guilty gluttony quite often. I'm American after all. That's not an excuse. Just a fact about me and the majority of those in my culture.

Anyways, I would go on, but I have to leave. Just remember this, even if you disagree with everything I said. If you are a Christian who believes the Bible is God's word, then you need to behave accordingly. As for Non Christians, I can't say you should. If you want to say something and do the opposite, who am I say to say you're wrong? If you have no standard of right and wrong except what society lays down for you, then you can do most anything, for you are society. But for the sake of clarity and mutual trust, please be consistent. It's just easier for me. (That last sentence was a bit of serious humour, serious in that I meant it, but humourous in that I understand everything is not really about me.)

As always, I could be wrong, but instead of hating me or scoffing at me or talking about me behind my back, please leave me a comment and we can discuss this like rational human beings. I would like if I am wrong. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,
Me

Alice from ye olden Wondrelande

2010-03-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

I saw it. Alice in Wonderland, that is. That's what I saw. It was okay. Maybe even alright But not worth the price of a movie ticket. The only good thing about seeing it, besides the company in whose presence I basked while viewing said motion picture, was that my curiosity was satiated. I am a relatively curious person I think. Sometimes too curious, many times not curious enough. You know when you want to see a movie for years and years, but keep forgetting to go out and just rent the sucker? Then you finally do just that and it doesn't at all live up to your expectations? The movie wasn't worth seeing, was it? But aren't you glad you don't have to deal with that nagging feeling every time you pass by it in the store and think "Maybe when I actually money I shalst dare to lay my eyes upon your electronic contents." It's so nice not to have to deal with that feeling anymore. That was how I felt about Alice in Wonderland.

Then I saw Monty Python's Holy Grail. It aroused much the same feelings as Alice in Wonderland did, except I never had any good expectations to be squashed beneath its merciless disregard for my time and general mood. It was a little too random. And by a little I mean lots and lots too lots. I appreciate some randomness, but just not on that level. Some parts made me laugh. But that hour and a half felt like two and a half, at least. Some parts seemed like they were trying to be funny, but though I got the "you should be laughing" vibe, I never saw the actual humour. I don't understand how you have an entire ten minute scene that seems devoid of any joke in a comedy movie. It was not only devoid of jokes, but seemed to be devoid of attempting at conveying any, though it attempted.

That's it for now. I'll write more later. Toodle-oo.

Much Love,
Mark

Overdue

2010-02-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

Were you expecting a blog about overdue library books? Though very exciting, alas, that is not what this post will be about. Instead, I will post a much overdue ramble about things. It seems befitting a man my age- 21. 21 year olds are known for their rambling skills worldwide.

First off, I have finished revisions on my book. Now I just have to format and reformat and reformat some more. I hope to continue writing chapters for my newer book this weekend, but I am slowly migrating out of the parents' house and into my own apartment. We'll see how that goes.

I am getting married. That's big news. Though, for as big as it is, I think relatively few people know anything about it. I should be getting an overdue performance review at work today. Did I mention I'm posting this from work? I have nothing to do until the mail arrives, and lately it's been delivered pretty late. However, even if I had it now I wouldn't have much to do. The workload of Fridays is pitifully small. Normally that gives me a lot of time to catch up on all my other work and I am waiting in anticipation for Friday to roll around, so the stacks of papers and such don't make me look like TOO much of a lazy shmuck. Whatever a shmuck is, I don't know. But I do know you don't want to be one. All my work has been caught up on as of a week ago, leaving me with nothing to do but explore the internet's possibilities from work.

So getting married...yeah, back to that. I'm excited. It'll be nice to have her here. It's a long distance thing and a couple hours of phone time just isn't the same as actually having someone right here right now to go see movies with or make sarcastic jabs at. Plus I need someone to roll their eyes when I start monologuing about the latest installment of Assassin's Creed.

Speaking of which, if you played it I want your opinion of it. I thought Assassin's Creed 2 shined in certain areas and fell flat in others. Much like the first. Except I love the first. The first one seemed to have more realistic animations, and overall just an entirely more realistic feel. It was a surprise, to me, when the magical pieces of Eden actually really were magical. But I can dig it. I'm hip. I like nerdy things like that to some extent. But this new game? I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say it went a little far for me. Plus, I've had enough of this "chosen one" crap. How overused can that be? And Abstergo laboratories seemed like a believable place before. But now you get to see more of it. The guards are wearing Star Wars uniforms, and the Doctor dude who ran the experiments has a weird confrontation with you at the end. It's like "Hey, I didn't bring any weapons. Just 8 guys with little metal poles in Star Wars uniforms. That should stop, ya!...okay maybe not..let me monologue as I stand here dressed inexplicably in my doctor's trench coat (who doesn't travel to ambush warehouses in a lab coat?), and you just stand there and NOT kill me. Sound good? I think so too". It was worth buying, but the plot and overall delivery was worse than the first. They did fix the repetitiveness though...a little too much. I felt like there was NO mission structure. It annoyed the crap right out of me. Literally. No not literally! What's wrong with you.

Raditude!

2009-09-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

We all have varying opinions about varying issues, and especially about varying music. However, I would like to take a moment to address a few things that don't make any sense about people's opinions regarding Weezer's forthcoming album "Raditude".

I understand the Blue Album and Pinkerton are generally considered the band's best work to date. That's fine if you are of this opinion. After all musical taste varies and you have the majority of fans on your side. I'd dissagree. I love Make Believe and the Red Album. I even like Maladroit better than Pinkerton! Shocking, no? But what I can't understand in any way is how people can already form an opinion of Raditude when it's a month away from being released.

Yes, the first single is out. You can hate that if you want to. But how is everyone labelling this album "the worst album so far" and saying such terrible things about these songs? With the exception of "If You're Wondering if I Want You To (I Want You To) they haven't released any of the new songs to hit your ears.

Even if all these are terrible beyond compare, it's not as if Weezer is getting suckier through the years just because of them. Some of these songs date back to before Pinkerton was Pinkerton. The Black Hole days is where these come from. So they're songs he wrote before his Harvard music degree and before Matt Sharp left and before Pinkerton was released. So it's not his new song writing abilities that exclusivly make this stuff terrible (if indeed it is).

All I can really say is this: why don't you give it a chance? If you can't do that then why are you still checking up on the band in the first place? If it's unlikable, don't stick around. This is not complicated. I can't see them suddenly making a magic 360 degree turn back to everything that was, can you? If they do you'll hear about it from your fellow modern Weezer haters and then you can all come around and throw a party and say "Miracles do happen".

Until then, for all you that Hate Weezer's new stuff, why don't you at least stop whining? You must realize how it sounds. Whining isn't fun to listen to when your baby brother does it, why do you think we're interested in hearing it from your mouth (or in this your fingers)? I can only conclude you are trying to be annoying or are just someone who whines about everything regardless of its actual quality.

Again, I'm not asking you to love the new stuff. You can hate it if you want. And I'm not asking you to even like this half as much as any other of their albums or songs. Just don't whine the live long day. Most people reading this are probably Americans, like me, or people from other countires with free speech rights. I'm not asking you to give up this right. I'm asking you to control your right with reason and not make a mockery of it by complaining about everything just because you can. And if you really feel it's necessary to complain then reasons to back up your allegations are always nice, so throw at least one in.

Books and Music

2009-08-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

This has been a good year for books and music. Every single one of my favourite musicians is either has come out with something or is about to. This includes Relient K, Breaking Benjamin, Weezer, The Pink Spiders, A Fine Frenzy, Hawk Nelson, and I don't even know who else. I hold very low hope for Hawk Nelson's next album. The same goes for Breaking benjamin. Hawk Nelson came out with something less than a year ago and their one single I've heard is less than impressive. However I'm still interested because their last two albums were great and their first was almost as great. Then we have Breaking Benjamin and I'm just not sure what's going on there. Their one single I've heard is very Breaking Benjaminy, but in a weird, new, and very gerneral way. However, I maintain interest because singles aren't everything and they have shown so much promise in the past. As for the rest of my favourites I'm just excited through and through with very little doubt to mingle.

As for books...well it's been a fine year I guess. Nothing of too much note has come out or is that I'm aware of. But that's normal because all literature is poo these days. And poo is fit for one place: in the rhelms of concentic circles as it races down the toilet. But the greats are always there and writing is so ancient that it leaves incalculable amounts of novel and fiction and what not to read if you but know where to look. So in short, it's never really a BAD year for books.

BUT! and I know we're not supposed to start paragraphs with that word-- my book should shortly be released. family is reviewing it and I have formatting to fix. then I'll send it to some friend's and see what they like and hate and don't care about and revise based upon that feedback. THEN I am going to release it for the general public and send it in to publishers. I'm pretty nervous about what people think, because it doesn't have your normal "happily ever after" ending. I liked the way Lord of the Rings books ended and thought it fitting to model my ending after them. So it's triumphant, but sad at the same time. The main characters win, but what did they win? You know? I think you do.

Anyways, I'm writing away on another book, which is even more depressing than the last. This one will steer well away from the triumphant ending and leave you with the just sad, but I hope it's leaving you with more important questions to ask yourself. I think it'll be more meaningful because it ends so sadly. I do plan for it to be a series of books that I have tentatively titled "the Fortune series". I think I'm going to write one, then take a break and start on one of my allegories, which will most likely clock in at around 200 pages. I like short book and the nature of this one makes it really short, though it will also deal with issues that are paramount to human life. then I'll continue with the Fortune series. There should be about four total in it if I do this right. I really hate trilogies for some reason, so I'm going to do my best to stay away from them.

I also think I might try my hand at music. I have the beginnings of an album put to tegether. It's not a professional thing, mind you. Just a hobby. I'm not sure if this will even come to pass, but I'd really like to see something come out of it. It's fun and interesting and it allows me to say thing that I wish other people knew about.

By the way, go check out Michael Franti & Spearhead's new song "Sey Hey (I Love You)". It's pretty amazing. I like it's simplicity and that it doesn't repeat itself to often except when appropriate. Not to mention, who doesn't wish theur name was Franti? Also go check out Jon CJG's new machinima series "One Life Remaining". The new second episode is hilarious and I think we can all identify with what the poor guy is going through. On that note, I follow Jon's other work fairly closely and really enjoy is dramady "Hard Justice". if you're not too insecure to nerd out and watch machinima then you'll enjoy these little gold mine's of humour. You especially gotta loce his canadian stereotypes...considering he IS Canadian. He's not really making fun of his own nation, which most people don't know. He's actually making fun of people who believe these stereotypes by reinforcing them in ridiculous ways. Here's to seeing more of Bradly Punter the Moose Hunter! or whatever his name was. That character totally needs to be a main character.

Other than that, not much is going on. Keep living and doing your thing! And you want to get a little preview of my book then click the title of the blog. A link is most certainly inserted!

- Mark

Castlevania!

2009-07-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

So I've never actually played any of the games in the Castlevania series. In fact, I really don't know what they're about. But I happened upon this video a couple months ago and I must say that I am about %100 certain that I will buy it when it comes out.

I've been waiting for a game like this for...well..forever. A knight dude who fights monsters isn't exactly original, but this is something more. This is Epicness in the making. First of all, you have (unless I'm gravely mistaken) Patrick Stewart doing the voice in this preview, which I have a feeling means he will voice something in the game as well. Patrick Stewart is just cool. There are no if's, and's, or butt's about it- I mean but's. He's been cool since before Star Trek: The Next Generation and he's been even cooler since he voiced a The Emperor in Oblivion IV: The Elder Scrolls.

But beyond that this game has more to offer, I think. Go look at the combat in the video. It has that "old school" video game look and feel, hopefully without the old school control frustration. The graphics are decent. The creatures are nothing new, but I kind oflike that. Don't you hate it when they re-envision your favourite monsters and ruin them? *Cough Cough*...Twlight? Oops my typed coughing was a little off and didn't really mask me saying TWILIGHT IS TERRIBLE! Ah well. What to do. Certainly not retype. That would be much to difficult and I'm much too lazy.

The best ting about this game, besides the awesome cross weapon thing and the cool, but sorrowful attitude of the swashbuckling hero himself, is how you get to fight 50 foot troll things. Yes Sir (or Ma'am depending on who reads this), I'm going to buy this game first thing when it comes out. And you should too.

As always,
The Markster

P.S. If you want to see le video then click on the title of this blog. I did happen to put the link in.

Sewer Monsters, None-the-Less

2009-07-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

What is up my poeple?! "Not much"...I know. Who came up with that response anyways? It's lame. I'm just posting this to say that I found an awesome little video on the internet about a new lifeform they found in the sewers. Click the title of this blog if you want to see it since I haven't yet learned how to imbed a working link and I don't want to say "Just copy and paste into your browser". Don't watch if you are hungry or eating, because if you do you do you will soon wish you hadn't. But watch the video before reading this next sentence or else it'll spoil the video for you.

I'm serious. Come on guys, go watch the video first. I know you're reading ahead, because I always do the same thing, but don't. You need to go watch the video and guess what that thing is. THEN Come back here and tell me what you think it really is. Okay now, there was a lot of speculation abot what this thing was. The best being that it was actually a Shoggoth. If you don't know what a Shoggoth is that's okay. Virtually no one knows unless they've studied their obscure poetry. A Shoggoth is a horrific creature with a shapless form and eyes that form and unform at diferent spot all over it's body. The whole monster glows faintly within itself. Anyways, suffice it to say that that is not what this is. Experts say it's actually worms. Not the common type you find in your garden, but worms none-the-less. I like typing none-the-less. None-the-less that is beside the point. :) Experts say the worms normally grow in damp soil, but the sewer must not have been cleaned as often as it's supposed to and the worms got in somehow and started procreating. With nowhere to go the worms just started attatching onto the other worms, which results in a big slimy ball of disgusting worminess. Apparently when even one worm contracts that somehow sends a signal to the rest and they all contract almost simultaniously. That makes it look like the blob is one organism. How many times did I just some variation of the word "worm"? Answer: Many.

I'm not sure if I buy that explanation or not, but the video is interesting...none-the-less (Happy Face for using that word again). It was the most plausable out of all the others I heard, but the third blob they show seems to have hard spike like thing protruding out of the "top" of itself. You can't see it at first, but once it contracts once or twice you can see the rest of the mucous peel back and leave behind the whitish spike thing. The spike retracts soon after, but emerges again for a few seconds before retracting yet again. Maybe it's another worm (or a few), but it seems much more rigid. I'm not the expert, however, so I will defer to them and assume it's a mass of blobby worms. Either way it's interesting and seems to have stumped everybody for a couple months until just recently. Tell me what you thought of it. I'd like to know.

Your homeboy,
Markizzle

T-T-T-TRANSFORMERS!!!

2009-06-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

It was okay. I mean, contrary to what Jon CJ Graham might said about it being horrendous, it was fine. There was some awesome stuff and some silly stuff. Awesome stuff included, but was not limited to: Optimus Prime. He is totally awesome. Awsome voice, good fighting, extra weapons at the end. You get the idea. Dwight. Okay it was Raiin Wilson who PLAYS Dwight on The Office, or however you say his name, but he was awesome. Bumblebee Crying. Awe how sweet. Tons of good action and special effects including a ginormous Decepticon sucking everything within a 100 meter radius (I don't really even know how much a meter is) into his mouth and shredding it to pieces.

The not so awesome was Shaia Legay. Anything to do with him was horrible. Megan Fox. Her acting was much better, dare I say good, this time, so she wasn't just eye candy like in the last movie, but still...we all know she was only in it because she was hot and that purturbs the crap out of me. There are two gangsta wannabe transformers in this film that we could have done without. They were super annoying. The Decepticons all spoke in English almost all the time, unlike in the last movie. The film end abruptly and doesn't have anything after the credits. Starscream's voice couldn't have been any worse for his character. He seems so UNscary now that it's just silly.

Anyways I could lengthen either list, but there is so much to talk about. Was this a kids movie or not? I wouldn't let my kid watch it. There was tons of language and most parents don't like their kids being around that normally. There was also a fair amount of near nudity when Sam enterd his new dorm room. Again, that's not something parents usually like for their kids. There was other stuff, but whatev. You get the point. Yet there were also an over abundance of charachters, like the gansta wannabes that I mentioned, that grown ups will hate and seem to be geared towards kids. I don't get it.

I won't buy it when it comes out, but it was about as good as the last movie. It was entertaining and that's all I was paying for anyways, so it delivers on what I expected. Now go see it, or don't go see it. I'll sleep at night either way.

Have a craptastic day!
Mark

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2009-06-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

OKAY! Stop yelling atme for not updating about what I said I would update about and also this run on and poorly constructed sentence! I will update about the aforementioned stuffs sometime soon, but for now I have other things to expound upon.

Namely Star Wars: The Old Republic! Heck yes. Most Star Wars video games have been rather lackluster as of late. Even the Force Unleashed was kinda "meh". But Bioware is coming out with another Starwars game that is linked to their last two "Knights of the Old Republic". And it kind of looks like the bad guys are finally kicking some serious behind. The bad guys so rarely do that in games it seems. there's usually like...one who's the almighty mega powerful badguy with a billion lackeys who can't do anything. This game might just fix that.

This game is Bioware's answer to all the crappy MMORG's out there. An MMORG is one of those online games that tons of real people play together. Like World of Warcraft for instance. Lucasarts has directly stated that they plan for this game to take World of Warcraft head on...and win. Now of course that would be preposterious if this game didn't include something that no other MMORG has. But they thought of that. They decided the include one of the things that has been my sole wish for these types of games. A plot. Usually the other games had meager plots that were basically a fancy way of saying ",Uhhh...just continue leveling up your character...and if you've leveled them to the max then just keep player because we like your money." With the inclusion of a real story I am excited to say that I might actually buy this game and pay the monthly subscriptions, as long as they decide to make it for Xbox 360. I would have preferred Lucasarts and Bioware finish off the Knights of the Old Republic story, but this will do just fine until then.

More on this later, but for now check out the trailer. To see the trailer just click on the title of this blog. I also did that with the Big Guy and Rusty blog. Basically if I reference a video or site or article, you should normally be able to click on the title of that particular blog and it should send you to the what I was talking about. So go click this title now, because it is worth watching if you are a Star Wars or video game fan.

With much hatred,
Mark

Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

2009-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hey, You!
Ah, summers past, and days present. I found missing old cartoons recently. Big Guy and Rusty to be exact. If you've never seen it then I do advise you get rid of whatever life you have and go watch it. It's weird and it's cheesiness is almost unparalleled, but somehow I can't help loving it. It's about a "Robot" called Big Guy and his robot sidekick Rusty. The BGY-11 (Big Guy) was supposed to be the militaries next generation warfare answer to everything, a robot that could think for itself and combat aliens and mutant creatures (which about in plenty in this show). The only problems was that robotics wasn't as advanced as they had hoped. So the BGY-11 was designed to secretly house a pilot inside. For the last 10 years Lt. Dwayne has been the militaries secret answer to the robotics problem. But now technology has finally caught up and a real robot has been made: Rusty. Rusty is meant to be Big guy's replacement, but fails miserable the first time out. So Lt. Dwayne teams up with Rusty to teach him a thing or two about fighting. All the while Rusty has no idea that his best friend is, in fact, not a robot. This leads to some comical and heartfelt moments throughout the short lived series.
The main recurring enemy is reminiscent of the Borg, but I overlook it for some odd reason. The dialogue is cheesy and horrible, but I'm pretty sure that's intended. The talking monkey is never explained (and no one even seems to express interest in how she came about until the very last episode), even though she's a main character. Don't take this show seriously and you'll seriously enjoy it.
The saddest thing is that it came to an end after just two seasons, the first of which was a half season. We'll never know what happened to the 8th bad guy that is suprisingly unvieled in the next to last episode. We'll ever know if Rusty finds out that Big Guy isn't a robot. We'll never know if Rusty can do anything but get his behind wooped. We'll never know if Lt. Dwayne and Doctor Slate fall in love. We'll never know a lot of things, but I forgive this because we have all been blessed with an awesome show, with or without conclusion. Besides, the canellation of this show gave us something more epic, more powerful, more heartfelt, and just all around more amazing than any cartoon ever, in the history of cartoons. That makes it especially forgivable. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. That's what my next blog will be about. Yeah, sorry for all the cartoon talk to start off, but I promise I really will talk about different things. I don't normally even think about this kind of stuff, but as I said, I've been in an old cartoon mood lately...at least I think I said that. I'm too lazy to take ten seconds of my life to scroll up and check. Haha.
This is the only show I can think of that has actually made me feel patriotic...ever. Big Guy's concern for the tax payer's dollar makes me feel like the government really cares about us little guys out here...then I remember it's a cartoon. Still, this cartoon teaches patriotism, responsability, the worth of listening to others, and following through on our promises. Plus we get tons of awesome action and impossible pop-out robot weapons! Could you ask for more? the answer is yes, but you'd be an idiot to actually ask for anyting more.

Love and gushy warm feelings,
Mark

Hello Peoples!

2009-06-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

So here's a blog. Nothing too special. I'll write about anything that interests me here, so mostly you'll find stuff on music, movies, tv shows, the occasional book and poem, maybe a few video games, art of varying sorts, and possibly the ridiculous English language. Much of it will include a dose of sarcasm. Oh...and from time to time you'll see other random stuff I'll wager. So check in now and then and we'll be bestest buddies and share recipes and eat ice cream and go to amusment parks together!...or not. But you read my blog and I'll (maybe) read yours!

Sincerely and foreverly yours,
Mark (McCulley)