Work
my invisible text
I made this! you found my invisible text! ___________ My first chromatography column!
Play
Games
Call me a nerd if you want, it doesn't bother me, but in my opinion no games will ever come close to the sheer excellence of Myst and Riven.
More than the stunning realism (at the time), the gameplay is based on using your brain, rather than your gun. I don't know of any other game series with such a hugely developed story behind it besides things like Star Wars. The thinking that went into their creation is reflected by the thinking you have to do to get through them. The mood, music, plot, even the interface is revolutionary. Any game that can be based on slideshow images rather than some 3D realtime rendering engine that 98% of computers don't even support and still be the best-selling in history has to have something special going on. If you for some ungodly reason haven't played these games yet, DO SO NOW....ahem, I said NOW!!! As for this pathetic attempt by UbiSoft to reproduce brilliance with this insult they dare to call Myst III,
I would advise you not to waste your money, unless it's less than $10 AND comes bundled with something decent. Anyone who's played Riven will be laughing themselves sick at how asinine the "puzzles" are. Actually, the toughest thing about this game is making out what you're looking at, the rendering is so bad in some places. I guess if you really needed a laugh, you could get it, but don't expect anything that would seriously belong in the pantheon of M/R/D.
Typical Riven puzzle: Solve Schroedinger's equation for helium.
Typical Myst III puzzle: How do you spell cat?
In addition, I also enjoy city-building games- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Caesar II & III, Sim City, and most recently Tropico. By some quirk of fate, I've never gotten around to playing any Civilization. I also like combat strategy games like C&C and Age of Empires. I have the older versions of these cause I can only afford to buy from the discount bin at Staples (thanks a lot, OSU), but I'm content with those, since I never have enough time to get seriously into them enough to finish them.
Half Life. Ah, Half Life. It's actually the first of that type of game I've played. The thing that amazes me most is that such a long game could be put onto a single disk. This is a shoot 'em up that actually has a developed plot. It took me about 35 hours of play, including 27 hours straight. I was hallucinating near the end ;-) It's addictive, and so fast-paced you never think to stop until you're done. The keyboard controls, awkward at first, eventually become like an extension of your body- each move instinctual. The only grievance I have is the ending, what there is of one. That disappointed me. Overall though, it certainly deserves all the awards it's gotten.
People are always asking me what kind of music I like, and I always feel strange when they do. I know it seems weird, but I always thought of music as a very personal thing, an experience to be appreciated to the fullest extent rather than just a source of white noise. When I listen to music, I turn off the lights, lean back in my chair, put my feet up, and turn the headphones (necessary cause the walls of my building are like particle board) to the highest volume. I close my eyes and let the music utterly and completely consume me. During that time, there is no universe but that of sound. So what kind of music is it that I wrap myself in like a fire blanket? Tough question. I like a variety- Dave Matthews, B.B. King, R.E.M., a little Chili Peppers, a little Aerosmith, very little Nirvana. Strangely, I also greatly enjoy the great classical (yes, you read that right) composers of today, like John Williams and Basil Poledouris. You might not have any idea who these guys are, but you can bet you've heard a lot of their stuff. John Williams has composed the music to almost every Spielberg and Lucas film (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, you get the idea). Basil Poledouris' crowning achievement is the absolutely amazing soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian. That movie would be less than nothing without his genius. He also composed the music to Hunt for Red October and Iron Eagle. To me, these guys are exactly the same as the opera composers of centuries ago. I don't really consider myself an opera fan, but Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is in my opinion pure brilliance. O Fortuna is unquestionably the most recognizable operatic piece by TV couch potatoes- its used in movies, commercials and pretty much anything requiring dramatic accompaniment.
As a category, historical fiction is my favorite genre, and particularly Roman history. Probably the best example is Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. These books deal with the tumultuous times between 100 BC and (presumably) about AD 15. They begin with the exploits of Gaius Marius and cover up to the battle of Philippi. The books are wonderful stories, but it concerns me that some people might take them as a real history lesson. Her characters are quite distorted from how the ancient sources describe them, and her interpretations stretch the bounds of likelihood. Still great reads, though.
Of course, none of these compare with what I consider to be the greatest epic in human history- Frank Herbert's Dune. To call this book just "sci-fi" is a horrendous insult. Thats like calling War and Peace a "political narrative." I've never read War and Peace, but I doubt anything so huge could be so simple. And neither is Dune. It is adventure, war, romace, environmentalism, ecology, psychology, mystery, religious fanaticism, philosophy, more philosophy, and a whole crapload of great storytelling. The first book is a compelling adventure of murder, betrayal, war, intrigue, and all that, but anyone who bothers to read it more than once, which is required to fully appreciate it, will slowly come to grasp the extraordinary subplots and sub-subplots that make it so realistic, even though its set so far in the future almost nothing is recognizable except the unchanging forces that have always driven humanity. The five succeeding books get into some extremely heavy philosophical issues, yet continue the rich and entertaining story across five thousand years. The pathetic attempts to make it into a film have failed miserably time and time again because it just can't be done. A story this big and complex defies any cinematic interpretation simply because no one interpretation is correct. There are few cut-and-dried "good" or "bad" characters, just like in reality, and the moral ambiguity adds whole new dimensions. You can't do that in a movie, audiences are too lazy for that. Lord of the Rings made a great movie because you knew exactly who was who, what their motivations were, and what the eventual outcome would be: good over evil every time. It is a huge, but deceptively simple story. Not so with Dune. You have to work out motivations, make your own judgements about characters. But as you're doing this the story, along with its profound and multi-layered messages, quietly and insidiously work their way into your psyche. When you emerge on the other side of the gargantuan plot you find yourself changed, either for the better or worse, you have to judge. You might not agree with all the ideas presented (I know I don't), but that's inconsequential. Everyone should at least try to read it, even if they fail. Anyone who gets through the whole series has significantly improved their minds. Anyone who claims to understand the whole series is either a genius, a fool, or a liar.
More stuff later when I feel up to it. Here's a list of all the movies I own (as of June 5, 2003) and my personal rating system. Eventually I'll put them on html...
People
Augustus was one of the few emperors who actually had the ability and the desire to rule the Roman Empire with wisdom, justice, and firmness. He ruled longer than any other emperor, and had the unique fortune of dying of old age. He extended the Roman citizenship to all people of Italy, who had been fighting for it for a hundred years, and thus ended the unceasing series of civil wars that had devastated most of Europe. He was modest, sensible, and very intelligent. He was a sentimantal man, but he was never blinded by sentimentality. He saw all things in the clear light of a perpetual afternoon. He was also as short as me 8-)
Lawrence is kind of an enigmatic figure. He led the Arab Revolt against the Turks during World War I, but few, if any, people ever really knew him. He was quiet, studious, and unassuming, but he had a drive and ambition that would not permit him to fail at any task he set himself to, whether it be digging up pots (he was an archaeologist before the war) or leading guerilla raids on armoured convoys. He has been called vain because he loved having pictures taken of himself, especially in Arab garb, but he also suffered from an intense self hatred that bordered on suicidal. He always thought himself a complete fraud, even when he was the most famous person in Europe, and was so afraid of being "found out" and disgusted with himself the he joined the Royal Tank Corps under an assumed name after the war. So why admire him? I don't know, really. He had a stubbornness that forced him to go on even when he knew all his efforts were utterly futile. He worked passionately to give the Arabs control of their own country at the peace talks, but it would only be after his death that his dream was realized. He had a great horror of bloodshed, yet he couldn't resist the challenge of blowing up bridges and railroads right in the Turks' own backyard. Some people claim he was gay, but I think he just had more important things on his mind than women at the time (like winning the war). He wanted so badly to be anyone other than who he was, yet he was addicted to his exploits. And yes, he was also short 8-)
Belisarius was the most famous general of sixth century Byzantium. He was notorious for winning battles where he was grossly outnumbered, yet he always avoided unnecessary loss of life. He never allowed his soldiers to rape and pillage captured towns, and he gave prisoners the opportunity to join his army. He was never known to have been ever been drunk. He was intensely loyal to his emperor, even though the emperor was jealous of his abilities and hated him, and eventually took away all his property and put out his eyes after humiliating him as much as possible. Even then, Belisarius remained loyal, because he loved his country and swore to obey its ruler.
It seems all my heroes are military figures, which is strange because I'm the least military person I know. I guess it can be chalked up to the fact that history tends to remember those who brought the most change, and war is without a doubt the most dynamic force this planet has ever seen. But notice my heroes are remembered above their peers more for their peacemaking abilities, than their capacity to kill.
