King of the Hill

September the Eleventh

2011-09-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

It's very hard for me to write about this. I don't want to centralize this on myself when it should be directed towards the families that were affected ten years ago. So I will tell it how I interpret it from when I was only 11 years old.

Every morning, I woke up at 6AM for school. My routine was simple, shower, catch the bus around 6:30. Every morning my mom and grandparents would be awake as well, the TV would always be on to Good Morning America. Well, September the Eleventh I woke up at 6 per usual and saw not two people talking gossip about stock markets or how to cook food, but one of two identical buildings on fire. I didn't think nothing more. I took my shower, I got dressed. When I went out to eat my breakfast both towers were on fire now. My mom and grandparents were huddled around the television talking vigorously about what details were pouring out of the speakers. To me, all I head was airplanes and fire. This might as well been the movie Pearl Harbor which I had only seen recently.

I left for school. My morning teacher addressed the class about what had happened. We were told there had been four plane attacks, and the towers I had seen on TV had collapsed. It was untold how many lives were lost but thousands were predicted.

For me, this is where my understanding of the world began. Even today I couldn't tell you exactly what had happened in the Gulf, why exactly the walls in Berlin fell, who Princess Diana was, what the hell did Clinton do wrong? And lastly, what did the World Trade Center do, and what symbol did it represent to the USA? For me and I'm sure for many kids in my age bracket, it was a symbol of fear and insecurity. This marked the era of smoke and mirrors and war. An era of terrorism.

In 2009 me and my family visited New York, and I wanted to see what was dubbed Ground Zero by millions. I'll tell you, it was erie, definitely weird. We entered St. Pauls Chapel where we saw signs, "Oklahoma loves you!" and others written by people whom were moved by what had happened. Outside, we were greeted only by cranes and open space.

For me, it was surreal to not know what had stood here, but know what had happened here.

Looking back, this has been a testing year for the USA. Years where we questioned our government and the person next to us. Where we take off our shoes at airports and shun unwanted opinions.

However as we moved within a year of a decade since, America has changed. I believe we have became more trusting, more faithful even though some may say otherwise. In May, we finally caught and brought justice to the man we believed to be the mastermind behind the attacks on that date and continue to fight against his followers with increasing success. We understand why there is a USA, it's right in our name after all.

What I've learned in ten years about the world is what it means to be united. Not necessarily blind faith, but a simple understanding of what and why regardless of opinions. Because of that lone event, I will undoubtedly stand by my country and shout for the freedom it provides. I will hug those that have been directly and indirectly effected by that event. I will shake the hand of a serving military man and woman who serves and whom had served.

Lastly I will turn to those younger than me whom don't quite understand what had happened on September the Eleventh, and tell them why they should never forget even if they never saw.

That is the least I could do after what had happened ten years ago.

Deliver Hope

2010-08-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

One thing Lost has taught me: it’s ok to watch official promotional videos. Never will they contain spoilers of any kind, they are only meant to tease the mind or add to the fiction. The rest of the internet is bad.

I’m an exception; I’m the good part of the internet. ^.^

I watched Halo Reach’s most recent live action trailer “Deliver Hope” and wow what a way to send off Halo with a bang. For the average viewer, the trailer begins with two piano notes back and forth, a Spartan running through explosions and gun fire with what looks like a water cooler under its left arm. For the more in tuned viewers, this is Kat-B320, the female Spartan lead in Halo Reach. The most obvious thing we notice from this point on is that she does not have a prosthetic right arm which immediately puts these events prior to the events during Halo Reach. The camera flashes forward to another shot of two Elites running, Energy swords in one hand Plasma Repeaters in the other (sooo sick). Cut again to several other UNSC Marines (or Army, not sure now that Reach has introduced Army into the equation) and Spartan Jorge-052 with his heavy machine gun-boy does he look huge. Then we see a wide shot of the battlefield, a terrorized cityscape, and a covenant cruiser laying in wait in the back ground; two Falcons fly from the top of the screen.

The next shot then comes from Kat’s in helmet cam as she’s looking towards the device entering a code; it flashes red and on the top of her HUD reads ‘MFDD ARMED.’ Yeah, it’s a bomb, and it’s ticking down from 5 minutes. Scope and scale has tripled. We have more cute cuts between Kat and sky cams of her running and of the chaos around her. We get a very short glimpse from another Elite in the shadows getting assassinated by Carter-A259, the leader of Noble Team in Halo Reach. Several more cuts follow, from Kat running with other soldiers, to the reflection of the cruiser on her visor, then leading to a giant leap over an off screen obstacle. She lands, smoothly.

Cut to the sky where a Covenant Banshee fly’s from behind a tall building and fires its Fuel Rod Cannon. Kat, with the bomb still in her left hand, corkers her body left as the bolt lands by her feet. She launches into the air, flipping over her head lands on her back with a thud. The bomb rolls out of her grasp. The screen then cuts to inside her helmet; a fresh cut on her cheek, you kind of admire her long black eyelashes. She looks more human than a mythical god. Her faceplate is cracked, it shuts down. We zoom to the bomb: 2:01, 2:00, 1:59.

Another Spartan jogs up to Kat, this one unfamiliar to any previously release information. Not Jun, definitely not Emile. He looks down at Kat; she tilts her head towards him-still alive. He reaches past her and grabs the bomb. We cut back inside her helmet, her eyes reflect off her faceplate-which then flashes back to life and we see the Spartan turn its back towards her and look upward-1:47, 1:46. We zoom outward and focus on the side of his backpack as it opens up and exposes a jet turbine. He launches into the air, the camera follows looking back at Kat’s crippled body. The camera looks upward at the Covenant cruiser, the Spartan flies towards its Gravity Lift. It’s clear the intent of this mission, he plans on destroying the cruiser. Those who are in the know immediately realize who this is: this is the original Noble Six, the one that had to be replaced.

The music picks up, as with a purpose. We get a close up of his visor: golden, almost familiar to one other Spartan’s we all know of. He flies into the lift, and upward into the blue light. The camera cuts to inside a hallway, the grey Spartan jogs to a stop by a ledge. We then pan to the Covenant’s hanger bay with Phantoms and Banshees. Hundreds of Grunts and Elites march in ordered formations from hallways and about the floor. We return to the Spartan, he winds up and flings the bomb into the center of the room. The camera looks back towards him as he turns and runs back into the hallway, the bomb flies by the camera: 0:01.

The camera cuts to a sky view above the Covenant cruiser. “Remember where it all began.” Its shields flare and an explosion erupts from the neck of the ship, explosions snake down the length of the cruiser. Camera refocuses farther from the ship which now appears as a yellow cloud of flames, refocuses to a perspective in space, the explosion is seemingly no different than the other’s all across the planet.

“Remember Reach”

:’(

To put a face on this new Spartan, he is indeed the first Noble Six, the one before the replacement you play in Halo Reach. If you dig through Bungie.net, there are character profiles for all six members of Noble Team. Specifically, both Carter and Kat’s profiles mention of a Thom-293. In Kat’s profile, it states that this mission against the cruiser was her planned operation. She feels regret as he died on her mission, whilst in Carter’s profile he takes full blame for the death of S-293. The comments in these profiles also state the date of Thom’s death is 22/04/2552, or April 22, 2552 (military calendar writes as day/month/year), three months before the events on Reach on 24/7/2552. Whoever writes the profile writes hastily, degrading Thom as he did not have situational awareness and acted on impulse. However, obviously for both Carter and Kat, he made a sacrifice that neither of them could make; Thom’s impulse was the one that they were all taught in the first place.

In storytelling, I felt moved (yes that sounds so lame it’s a videogame I understand) when I see a Spartan running about, thrashing crap up, then goes down after a shot that would kill any average human being. A Spartan, a God to the people in the Halo Universe, someone who is a symbol of success-falls, it’s heartbreaking. Then another Spartan comes over, and without any words spoke picks up the torch, and continues without questions asked, carrying the weight of humanity on its shoulders, at the risk of his own life. A true hero’s tale this is. I’m also a huge fan of the musical tone taken in this flick. I love piano notes, and the main reason I love Halo is for the choirs….the lone female hymn before the choir just reinstated the scale, gave me goose bumps. Also again this is a “live action” trailer, possibly the last of Halo for quite some time. This is the last chance to see what a Spartan, an Elite, other soldiers in the Halo Universe look like in flesh and blood. Who knows if there will ever be a Halo movie, we will have to settle with this.

The trailer itself sets up the events of the new game only 16 days away. You can presume that Kat lost her arm and needed a prosthetic one due to the injuries she acquired from the low flying Banshee. You now know that the new Noble Six is indeed a replacement for the past Spartan Thom. You also understand that even though the battle is global, every effort does not go wasted. Sacrifices have been made, even from those that we thought could not die.

I look forward to this game, maybe more so than any other game I’ve ever looked forward to, even its past two predecessors. Not because it’s the game that sets up a game made nearly 10 years ago, but because it’s Bungie’s last Halo game for quite some time. I know the baby has to leave the nest some day, I’m sure this will be a tearful goodbye. I just hope after the final flight into the woods, it prospers forever after.

Again, he's coming back....again.

2010-08-19T06:56:00.001-07:00

Losing track on how many agains it's been....

Its that time of year. Tune into your ESPN and get drenched in it.

Brett Favre, back for what he claims will be his final season after his contract for the Minnesota Vikings expires after this season.

Do we believe him?

Nah.

Star Tours flights are grounded today, may we find you a hotel?

2010-08-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I dropped a jaw here after learning that I wont be able to FTL past Endor any time soon. But considering how aged the ride is, a overhaul sounds due.

Star Tours Overhaul

I just wish I ran into this info earlier, I would have made a overnight trip just to mock how bad Droids are at space travel.

Dirt 3

2010-08-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

I may be over exaggerating when I say this, but my most anticipated game of 2011 is Dirt 3-no, I didn't mean to say Gears of War 3, Dirt 3.

Now I know my love for rally racing is like ESPN's all knowings about the World Cup (seriously don't pretend like you guys were waiting 4 years for it, you weren't), so me talking about rally cars or the WRC in general is still a rather unfamiliar subject for me. The only reason why this kind of racing has drawn so much interest to me is Codemasters' Dirt series.

For those that have played any of the Dirt games, many remember the overabundance of rally races and a below par experience of multiplayer which could have very well just been left out. Then Dirt 2 delivered on everything that was missing in the first game, actual door to door racing, both online and off, and it just looked too real to be a video game. However regardless of all these improvements, it seemingly left out what made the first game sparkle: sub-par rally discipline, damage acquired during a race would not carry over to following races, and the game itself was very Americanized (IE the face of the game was Block, Pastrana, other American extreme sport icons, however they still honored the original face of the offroad franchise, Colin Mcrae).

Dirt 3 is coming around the corner and it's coming out with a bang in this trailer-pun intended. In the first 15 seconds of the video we see a feisty Ford Fiesta blazing through desert terrain, Blocks 43 imprinted upon the door. He's racing, he's jumping, he's tearing it up. Then tree cut-we're in the rainy grasslands, perhaps somewhere in Europe like Germany or some other country out there (my geography slips me). He's going, wipers wiping, jump-SNOW! Frosty windows, snow dust on the fenders, he's drifting through a turn, he's beasting it up now. Camera zooms into his door panel-tree-zoom out and it he's back on the road hugging a rock wall. Looks like Italy, or Croatia from the previous game. Wall lowers and WTF, another Ford covered by a UK flag comes into view and a Mitsubishi Evo comes from the side of the screen. No fear though, Block is an American so he races past these guys. Then he's on a bridge going through some villa looking place-cone cut-SLOWMO. Behind Block we see a car jumping a dirt ramp. We are at a dock, London? Is it? Another car is seen doing a donut, oh it may be. Trailer, yes it is. Gymkhana is introduced to the Dirt series, just a little something Ken Block made a youtube hit last summer. Block drifts around the back end of the trailer as it explodes (see pun intended), slides under the trailer and then off screen.

Dirt 3
2011

So there you have it. Codemasters has set high standards for this next installment. They claim more cars, from classic to new, many more stages and areas, weather, and a racing perspective to the phrase "sandbox." I can only hope that they return to their roots but continue to push forward with their accomplishments in their second game. Sadly Dirt 2 was under the shadow of Microsoft's Forza 3, I just hope that they will register at least a blip under the Grand Turismo mothership that will presumably last well after its November release date this year (note too that GT5 will include rally disciplines as well).

Yup, big shoes to fill indeed. But no worries, I'm sure Ken Block can help them with that.

Drop it.

2010-07-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Again, I intended to post this back in the middle of June....didn't get around to it till now. It may seem scattered...but hey, I aint a real journalist. Just a very opinionated asshole.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Now what boiled me to write this blog was the negative criticism that her rescue has drawn from parents and rather conservative people (not in the political sense). I've read things like "parents should have thought more responsibly instead of being blinded by celebrity.....since when do 16 year old children make the most prudent decisions in their lives?" and "these young adventurers and their families are truly among the most thoughtless and selfish people on planet earth."

Lets get this straight.

16 year old kids every day are making prudent decisions every day in their lives. If these people haven't forgotten, a 16 year old is generally either a sophomore or junior in high school in the midst of getting jobs, figuring out colleges, and finally fitting into school cliques. Now Abby definitely is one smart lass whom even while out on her voyage was throwing around small schoolwork and reading. I'm sure a good percentage of these parent’s children are in their rooms right now playing videogames or smoking dope in the back alley or worst: being led by a bone by their parents. She is simply trying to make a name for herself.

That brings me to the next comment, selfishness. Sure it is a little selfish to have the balls to go out by yourself into the big ole blue, but it’s also quite selfish to go rock climb, surf, ride bicycles, drive, fly, I hope you see where I’m going here. The only fact I can agree with is she wanted to break a world record for being the youngest person to ever solo the globe. Even so, she is already more capable than more than 60% people of the world to solo sail the globe, so you tell me if you had a chance would you? And when she had to pull into Cape Town she wasn’t majorly flustered that she could not complete the trip nonstop, she went and mentioned on how proud she was of Emma Watson, the bar Abby was trying to beat. She wasn’t driven by ego, only common sense. When her mast was ripped from her ship, she did the most selfless thing and accepted rescue.

Now back to the parents. I’m not sure what to think about the reality show. If what the father says is true, and the reality people came to them, I would be fine with that. This isn’t the balloon boy, where the parents were pitching reality shows left and right then decided to fake their kid sailing across the cornfields to get attention. This was “hey, this family’s son just sailed the globe. Their daughter is going to do it. Let’s get some film!” And if the family did indeed drop the show because the producers believed “that Abby would go out and die,” then they did everything right as that would be, in my eyes, too much weight to carry for a teenage girl.

A final note I want to make is the fact that she did need rescue; in turn she risked lives of rescue crews and fishing vessels for her own mistakes. I believe mistakes deserve consequences, after all what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I’m reading what people are exclaiming, stating that the Sunderland family should repay the Australian government a full sum for risking the lives of search and rescue crews. I partially agree, perhaps some payment (not necessarily money) should be given to that crew. But….and I hate saying it like this….that’s what they’re there for. I respect every man and woman who is out there saving people in risk of their own lives, believe me when I say that. But they are out there knowing they won’t be getting any pay raises for foolish sailors. Hell, that’s not their priority. I don’t see police officers asking for tips after domestic call, I don’t see paramedics asking for a card swipe before they give you oxygen, or soldiers demanding raises before shipping to Iraq. If it was like that then I’m sure, and hate me for saying this I don’t care, there wouldn’t have been hundreds of fire fighters down near Wall Street on September 11^th. These are noble service men and women who do it for their own payment method, believing that someone else may live another day. So what do I believe these Rescue Crews deserve? A personal thank you, and perhaps a steak dinner on the house.

Of course I’m sure they get that already….

The point I’m trying to lay out here is just give the Sunderlands a break. They never did anything wrong, wrong did them.

Thats enough for now, your free to climb under your rock again.

LOST Finale

2010-06-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this like, the Wednesday after the finale, but as I'm not regularly camping out at the library after hours my laptop internet using has been at a record low. So here's a highly opinionated response to the conclusion of LOST.

. .. ... .... ..... .... ... .. .

I wanted to keep this brief because my mind is still racing after what I experienced Sunday

night, buut I can’t. So first and foremost, I must say I loved the finale of Lost, and I am not shy to put it at the top of anything I’ve ever watched. I’ve seen my share of shows wrapping up their shows, The OC, Battlestar Galactica, Friends, Seinfeld, ER. But none of those moved me as much as this two and a half hour behemoth.

For six seasons we’ve seen these characters argue fate vs. freewill, life and death, faith and none. Many questions were asked, not all of them were answered. Two episodes prior to the finale, a line was said to a woman asking this and that, “My answers will only lead to more questions.” For those that need that dumbed down, think of a child constantly asking why after every answer their mother gives. Whether the producers meant to shut up the skeptical out there or not I wouldn’t know. But it told us as the viewers to have faith, after all this is a story about redemption and love, not necessarily about science and clockwork.

After Sunday night, I understood what happened between the island timeline and the alternate reality/purgatory, and I fully accept it. What happened on the island from 2004 to present, happened. Season 6’s alt reality was what those that lived on created so they could all live together after they pass on. Because after all, no one dies alone. I accept that because it is true Lost fashion. Simple as that.

What happened on the island happened. I’m sure there will be criticism on the plug in the pool, it makes that cork in a bottle analogy pretty literal. Or even the plane on Hydra island being air worthy after the crash (I know any pilot first and foremost would be extremely skeptical on taking a jet out of the trees and putting it in the sky). But that’s

television, and again, answers will only lead to more questions. So have faith, and run with it.

With that said, I am grateful I followed this series for 6 years, it was the best entertainment thrill of my life. I can only ask those that have not watched the series to take time out of your day to slip in a viewing of the first season. If it ain’t your cup of tea, it’s ok I’m a forgiving person. But if you do continue through season 2, even past 4, and then the series finale, then I pray you experience the same things I have.

Because six seasons later I am not a man of science anymore, but a man of faith. And “what I saw, was beautiful.”

It truly was.

Welcome to my ego

2010-05-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Please wipe your shoes at the door because I like to keep my floors clean.

Just back story for those who stumble across this sucker, I'm currently 20, going to West Valley, still unsure what I'm going to do with my life. I've thrown around airplanes, aviation in general, engineering, architecture, computer/video game development, teaching, even firefighting or law enforcement. I graduated Los Gatos High school in 2008, played football through all four years. At one point I was determined to join the military right off the bat but got thrown a few roadblocks and two years later nothing has progressed.

In my free time I love video games, Halo and racing games like Dirt and Forza to name a few. I treat the TV show Lost as if it is a religion. Haters apply, I'll redirect you to your saturated programs on CBS. I also am an avid bay area sports fan, or Peninsula fan as I should say (SF teams, followed by the SJ Sharks). But don't fret if the A's, Warriors, or heaven forbid the Raiders make it anywhere in their post-seasons....I'll show my respects. Other sports I enjoy include both NASCAR and golf, both considered boring sports by many or two easy and any average joe can compete in either sport...well I'll save a post for those two later.

I'm tall, both physically and mentally. I mean what I say and say what I mean. I'm king of the hill not because I live on top of the SCM (I'm roughly 500 feet below actually), but because of what I believe I believe is just and fair. No that ain't saying I'm a dick and wont consider what you have to say, because that's obstructing your freedom, something I believe in. But if your ideas contradict my freedoms or other peoples, well...expect a rebuttal. And just FYI, if I do contradict myself (which I'm sure I will at some point or already have), let me know, I do hate when I'm being an ass.

On that note, have at it. This aint just a place for me, it's a place for you! So pull up a seat, have a drink, the show's just starting.