So Bad it's Good

We're in the middle of the Holidays and everywhere you turn, things are X-mas themed.

This is Eccentric Spheres however and, of course, things are the opposite.

Today I present to you a Youtube channel that I found quite by mistake, but I've become very fond of: Good Bad Flicks.

It is a channel dedicated to movies that are good despite the handicap of being really bad. You know the sort, entertaining because they stink. Funny, exciting, corny, good-bad in other words.

I sat a couple of hours one evening and enjoyed the rundowns and reviews of movies I love, some I've never even heard of, and some that I've been vaguely aware of.

The best part for me, is the love and passion for these movies that shine through, giving every video a warm and wonderful feeling. There is also a wealth of trivia mixed in, which of course is right up my alley.

For example, did you know that there is a direct link between The Terminator and The Re-animator? Both movies were filmed in the same studio right after each other, and many of the extras and the crew were the same. In The Re-animator, a muscular corpse is revived, and the man playing the corpse in question, was Schwarzenegger's stunt double. Also there is a scene in Re-animator where the heroine Meg gives a magazine to a patient in the hospital with his jaw heavily bandaged. That man was James Cameron's father. Cool stuff like that.

The videos are pretty short, so they are perfect if you need to kill a short amount of time before going to visit relatives, or indeed before guests arrive. That annoying time that's too short to actually do anything, but too long to just ignore. Here's the solution, my gift to you.

I'm keeping it short this week, so that's it. Have a great week, and take it easy, and I'll see you on the first Eccentric Sphere for the year on the first day of the year.

Happy Holidays!

Extra link, just in case: https://www.youtube.com/user/trachenburg/featured

Tasty but Terrible

Christmas time is almost upon us, and while traditions vary around the world and from family to family, one thing remains as a common thread: food.

Fear not, I'm not about to share X-mas recipes, nor am I about to spoil Christmas. However, this is Eccentric Spheres and I'm going to take a dive into odd and scary food facts, and you're all coming with me...

It's a common fact that vegetables are healthy, right? Sure, but they might just kill you.

In 2015, an elderly German couple made a tasty stew from zucchinis that they had received as a gift from a friend. They both complained that the stew was unusually bitter, but the man ate the whole plate anyway. They both succumbed to cucurbitacin poisoning, that hospitalized them both, and ultimately killed him.

Spinach, cucumbers and peas have all been responsible for spreading E. coli, botulism and salmonella in recent years, but these are unusual cases, stemming from improper handling and storing, so no need to worry. Potatoes are another matter entirely, however.

The potato plant is a relative to Deadly Nightshade and is terribly toxic, that's why no one ever eats anything but the actual potatoes themselves. Fun Fact: tomatoes are also a part of this family so, do not eat any part except the fruit.

Anyway, in 2013, a Russian professor went down to the basement to fetch something. When he failed to return, his wife went down to see where he was. Then their son and the professor's mother went down, and they all died. A sack of rotten potatoes had created an atmosphere so toxic that it incapacitated and killed them all.

Then we have the case of the British fork lift operator who challenged his brother-in-law to a chili eating contest. He won the contest, but paid dearly as he later complained of acute discomfort and itching. He was found dead the following morning from a heart attack, even though he was in perfect health and had no pre-existing heart condition. Apparently he has ingested so much capsaicin from the challenge that he developed an allergic reaction, which did him in. Everything in moderation, kids.

Now, if these gruesome tales have soured your disposition towards vegetables, to the point of panic, you may be suffering from Lachanophobia, or fear of vegetables.

Other relevant phobias are:

Oenophobia – fear of wine

Deipnophobia – fear of dining and dinner conversations

Mageirocophobia – fear of cooking

Xocolatophobia – fear of chocolate

Ichtyophobia – fear of fish and fish related things

Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

and finally:

Cibophobia – fear of food.

Now Cibophobes can't survive without eating and it's rare even within the small number of people who suffer from this that it's a blanket fear. Usually it's about being unable to eat a specific combination of foods or food cooked by someone else. It varies, but is usually treated promptly and with great care, since the sufferer can in worst case scenario, starve to death.

Well, with that out of the way, it only remains to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or which ever festivity you may choose to celebrate or not. In any case, until next time, have a great week and watch what you eat.

Bad Medicine

A month or so ago, my wife and I saw an interview with two young mothers in Finland (my country) who likes to not only drink Colloidal Silver Water themselves, but also give it to their babies. The reason being that silver kills most bacteria on contact, so ergo, it's good for you.

But, many topical treatments have a label that says “Not for internal use”. This is a pretty useful warning, since no one would eat Icy-Hot or some other muscle relaxing gel, right? Anyway, at best silver water does nothing for you and at worst it will give you Argyria and kill you. On top of that, silver water is ridiculously expensive. Researchers have found no benefits from drinking silver beyond the placebo effect, so please, don't do it.

It got me thinking about other weird things people have taken for medicinal purposes, and that's what today's topic is all about. Bad medicine.

In the early 1900's Radium water was all the rage in certain circles. No one seems really sure why anyone thought Radium was good for you, but like Colloidal Silver water, “it's good for what ails you.”

Eben Byers, a wealthy industrialist from Pittsburgh started drinking Radium when his doctor suggested it, and by 1930, he had several holes in his skull, multiple cancers and most of his jaw had fallen off. Very healthy...

During the first half of the 20^th century, doctors used to prescribe one of the most powerful painkillers in history for pretty much anything you could possibly complain about. The painkiller? Heroin of course! In no time flat, there were desperate addicts everywhere, clamoring for another dose from their doctor, which is why it's illegal to own today.

This brings us nicely to Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup. Popular around the late 1800's and early 1900's as a cure-all for babies and small children. Teething pain, diarrhea and trouble sleeping? Soothing Syrup time!

Of course, the syrup was pure morphine dissolved in alcohol. No wonder it worked, that would take the edge off anything, but sadly it led to death from overdose and lots of drug-addicted babies. Be careful what you feed you kids.

In the 70's a new wonderful drug was discovered and prescribed for depression, autism and incredibly, substance abuse. The drug is called MDMA, or more commonly Ecstasy, (or Molly).

Considering that the name Ecstasy is precisely what the taker feels, it makes sort of sense that you would give it to someone who is depressed, but a person with substance abuse issues? Yeah that stopped by the early 80's. Interestingly, today it's being looked at as a PTSD treatment drug. Time will tell, I suppose.

Between roughly 1920 and 1950, women were told to smoke if they wanted to loose weight. Doctors appeared in commercials, telling the ladies to reach for a cigarette instead of that candy when they felt like a treat. Sure, tobacco is a mild appetite suppressor, but it's not much of a diet drug. Then after 1950, instead of smoking, women were urged to drop those extra pounds by taking Methamphetamine instead. Much better!

Finally I want to mention ear candles. The idea is that you put one end of a hollow candle in you ear, and light the other end. This would create negative pressure, drawing out the ear wax. Except it doesn't work, and you are very likely to get an earful of hot candle wax instead. Oh yes, want to guess when this was invented? 1996. Stupidity is truly timeless.

That's all for now, so until next time, have a great week and stay away from dodgy medicine!

That sinking feeling

Well, I got somewhere about four hours of sleep last night. My brain is desperately trying to escape through my ear and back to bed, which makes expressing myself somewhat difficult.

As a result, you have to make due with a short entry today. What I have for you is a computer simulation of the Titanic sinking in real time. That's 2h 40m of water seeping into a big ship. It's actually more interesting than it sounds, so give it a go.

Until next time, I'm going to celebrate my country (Finland) being independent for 100 years, and at the same time hope that you have a great week!

Star Wars gambling, Destiny 2 and all the rest

Well, it just keeps going.

Last week I talked about AAA game publishers and pay-2-win loot-boxes sold for real money. Since last Monday, it's gotten more interesting, and here's how.

The Belgian gambling commission is still looking into it, but the Belgian Minister of Justice has said that in his opinion these loot-boxes are indeed gambling and incredibly harmful for children. This is his private opinion, but if Belgium finds against loot-boxes and classifies it as gambling, then it will become regulated and taxed. Oh, and no one under eighteen years of age can buy them. If this happens, it's a very short step for the entire EU to adopt a similar stance. If that happens, kiss loot-boxes and predatory gambling practices goodbye. The EU market is enormous, and while I'm sure the big AAA's can ignore Belgium (11 million people), they can't afford to ignore the 743 million that reside in the EU as a whole.

As I mentioned, Holland is investigating this, as is Sweden, it would seem. Oh, and as a fun piece of trivia: in France, you can only gamble in resorts. No where else.

Gambling authorities in Australia are also investigating this, and while the gambling commission in Victoria indeed do think that it is clearly gambling, they can do very little about it as long as it's only on the 'net. Like online poker for example.

The really surprising thing is that State Representatives from Hawaii have stood up and condemned these micro-transitioned loot-boxes as a “casino for children”. I'm sure Disney was happy about that one...

Now, it turns out that Destiny 2, developed by Bungie (Halo series) under Blizzard-Activision has been caught with their pants down and their hands in the cookie jar.

Destiny 2, the sequel to the pretty popular sci-fi multiplayer shooter Destiny (no, really?), was released not only on console but unlike the first game, also on PC.

When it got released, people were a bit grumpy about the whole micro-transaction thing, but at least you earn loot-boxes (called bright engrams) in-game for free, you just have to go to the in-game store to open them.

Why do you open them in the store? Well, the speculation was that you would get tempted to put down some money and buy a couple of extra crates. OK, bad, but not villainous.

What is pretty damn villainous is what Reddit user EnergiserX discovered: Bungie was cutting away the XP you were earning without telling you.

The way it works is like this: once you reach max level, you still earn XP, but every time your XP-bar gets filled up, instead of getting a new level, you earn a Bright Engram (loot-box). What EnergiserX found out was that players were earning between 4-50% of what they were supposed to be getting. Isn't that fun? You work hard, grinding away to earn more loot-boxes, and earn 4% of what you should have gotten, all so that you would be frustrated enough to fork over you sweet sweet money!

Once caught, Bungie said that “they weren't happy either and that they have fixed the issue.”

Yeah, I bet they're not happy. No one is happy when they're caught stealing, lying and cheating.

Sadly some players have reacted with joy that “it's fixed now,” and “see, Bungie are good guys”. Come on. That like saying the guy who mugged you is a good guy because he gave back your wallet after taking all your money.

Finally, I want to address the claim the AAA publishers are constantly pushing: “Games are too expensive to make these days. We have to make money somehow.”

Pure and utter garbage. One might even be tempted to say Bullshit. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, was made with $12 million, three years and a team of twenty people. It's a commercial success after a mere three months after release.

If these mega developers can't figure out how to make a budget, how to make a compelling and fun game that people want to play, then good riddance. Go out of business, and leave the industry to those who can figure it out. Stop spending hundreds of millions on games that are soulless boring grinds and then claim we have to buy extra loot-boxes because you're so poor.

The AAA's have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted. Their word is as rotten as a dead rat under a porch in the summer.

Give your time and money to those who deserve it, until the “Big Boys” prove they can do better. Don't believe them when they say they'll change. Talk is cheap.

Ultimately what I find so ironic is that these monoliths, these gargantuan behemoths became what they are because they were the best, the most successful, the most beloved. But as they say: you either die a hero, or live to become the villain.

Until next time, support the good stuff and have a great week!

A victory for honesty

When Star Wars Battlefront II closed it's beta, gamers were furious, and with good reason.

There's been a lot of talk recently about the prevalence of loot-boxes in AAA games. For those not in the know, a AAA stands for the biggest, richest and most powerful game publishers on the market. I've been unable to find a proper list of them all, but companies like Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Blizzard-Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are good examples.

Loot-boxes on the other hand are in-game crates of (usually) loot and other kinds of gear that are handed out by the game as rewards. The contents are randomly generated, lottery-style.

So what's the hubbub, you ask?

Some games like Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch only give out cosmetic items in their loot-boxes, meaning the contents can only modify your characters appearance, not their performance. Recently, however, many AAA publishers have taken a page from the mobile game market in order to pump up their revenue, by selling loot-boxes with game enhancing content. And when I say selling, I mean for real money. Not in-game currency like fantasy gold, but real Dollars and Euros, leading to entirely correct accusation is pay-to-win mechanics. This scummy habit is bad enough in mobile games that are free to play, but when the game costs $60-90, it's inexcusable.

In the case of Star Wars Battlefront II, it got even worse. Gamers were horrified to discover that not only was the entire progression system loot-box based, but as such, all progress was random. To make matters worse, you could buy more crates with real money, if you found your progress too slow. Pure pay-to-win, in other words. The players who were willing to shell out the most money at launch would get an unbeatable edge over the competition.

Well, people weren't about to take that sitting down. The internet exploded in outrage, and quickly spilled over, to the point where main-stream media reported on it. EA and the game studio, DICE, started back-pedaling, but it was too little, too late. EA actually saw their stock fall in value, which is practically unheard of. Meetings were held behind closed doors and a statement was quickly pushed out the door stating that the so called micro-transactions were removed from the game. A clear victory for honest players right? Yes and no. The same statement also said that the micro-transactions would be reinstated at a later date, when they could be “balanced”. In other words when EA thinks they can sneak it in and no one cares anymore.

This whole debacle came about shortly after the scandal where Warner Bros. had put actual game enhancements in Shadow of War. It's up to all of us to support game developers and studios that play fair. Don't give your money to studios and publishers who lie, steal and cheat.

These loot-boxes, with their real money costs, and “spin-to-win” mechanics have been accused of being a covert form of gambling. The ESRB have stated that they're not, but both Belgium and Holland are looking into this. Especially since gambling is regulated all over the world, and these loot-boxes aren't, but they are sold to minors. If the verdict comes down as guilty, they may even be banned, and that ban could spread throughout the EU. Let's hope so.

To end on a more positive note, Blizzard has announced that they will be releasing vanilla servers for World of Warcraft at some point in the future, something players have been asking for for a long time.

That's it for me. Until next time, have a great week, and avoid micro-transactions.

A hunter of Men

Last week I finally got around to watching another film that's been on my must-watch list for years;

Manhunter (1986) by Michael Mann, (Heat, Last of the Mohicans, Public Enemies).

This is the first on screen appearance of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, (here spelled Lecktor), predating Silence of the Lambs by five years. In essence this is the earlier version of Red Dragon, so forget Lambs for now.

We follow FBI agent Will Graham as he's brought out of early retirement to catch the Tooth Fairy, a serial killer who slaughters whole families during the full moon. Graham is renowned as it was he who caught Lecktor and put him behind bars. He does this by being able to think like the killers he chases, even thought this ability once landed him in the psych ward. He's naturally hesitant to get back to work, but with the lives of entire families at stake, he can't refuse.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. Manhunter is a very 80's movie. If this bothers you, maybe stick with Red Dragon instead. I don't mind, and except for the title logo, I wasn't bothered.

If you have watched Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Hannibal several times, you may have a hard time adjusting to the Brian Cox version. It's certainly different, but I can't say that either is outright better.

That was easy, so let's crack on with the good. Manhunter is absolutely gorgeous. Most scenes are crafted and shot with meticulous care, and are as such a joy to behold. The music fits very well, unlike Mann's previous movie The Keep. I wrote about that some time ago. All the actors are real professionals, and it shows. You buy every scene, without question, except one in the end which was a bit silly.

I could go on gushing, but two things really stood out, and minor spoilers ahead.

1. When they find out that the Tooth Fairy is threatening Graham's family, the FBI just moves them. No last second rescue that has become so cliché over the years.
2. Graham's wife is very understanding. Yes, she feels the stress and the pressure, but there is no melodramatic scene with the tearful screaming wife and the brooding determined husband. They talk like adults, and I love it! Donnie Brasco looses points for just such scenes. Pointless drama for the sake of drama.

Overall I was very impressed, more than I expected, in fact. It's more a pure thriller than the Hopkins movies to be sure. You could brush it off as “just another crime procedural” but that would be unjust. It is in my opinion better than Red Dragon, but only just. Dragon explains a couple of things better than Manhunter, but Manhunter feels more realistic. At the end of the day, it's up to you which version you prefer.

Now that I think about it, Red Dragon felt more disappointing because Lecter isn't in it a whole lot, and as a part of The Silence of the Lambs trilogy, I wanted more of him. In Manhunter, Lecktor is on screen just as much as he should be and the whole thing feels a bit more honest, for the lack of a better term.

Bottom line: I recommend Manhunter wholeheartedly.

That's all folks, so until next time, stay away from serial killers and have a great week!

Private Snafu

This week I have something special for you. Quite by mistake, I found a series of cartoons on Youtube called Private Snafu.

These cartoon were produced by the U.S. War Department between 1943 and 1945 as an instructional tool for soldiers who weren't that literate or had other learning difficulties. Each cartoon short illustrates a lesson, like why you have to lug around your gas mask at all times. Or why you absolutely can not tell your mom or girlfriend anything about your unit, troop movements, equipments etc.

Private Snafu became immensely popular with the troops, and it's not hard to see why. The cartoon was produced by Leon Schlesinger of Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Chuck Jones and Snafu was voiced by Mel Blanc. If this sounds familiar, it's because I just described the team behind Looney Tunes, and Snafu sounds pretty much like Bugs Bunny.

The scripts were mostly written by Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (The Cat in the Hat), Philip D. Eastman (Mr. Magoo) and Munro Leaf (Ferdinand the friendly Bull), all of whom became famous children's authors after the war.

The cartoons were not only instructional but also morale boosters. It makes sense of course, you get a break from the stress and tedium of military life and you get to watch a pretty funny cartoon. Win-win.

Apparently, the War Department offered the production to Walt Disney at first, but Warner Bros. underbid Disney by 2/3 and got the contract. The project itself was restricted, and everyone who worked on the project was fingerprinted and given a security clearance by the FBI. Today, the entire run is on Youtube.

A final note before you go off and watch Snafu. His name, as some of you no doubt have figured out, stand for the acronym; Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. Apologies for the crude language there, but it is what it is.

So there we have it. Secret cartoons from World War II, enjoy!

Until next week, stay away from wars.

Show link:  Here

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZs0gQed9tMQF0es_H77fHJ4s88duIfm0

More sayings

We all use sayings in our daily lives. Turns of Phrases that we sort of know what they mean, but don't reflect too much on. Today, we're looking at a number of those and their meanings and origins.

A baker's dozen

This saying likely stems from medieval times when a baker could be pilloried or even flogged for selling bread that was under weight. To avoid this, they often gave an extra loaf to avoid the risk. The meaning literally means thirteen of something, but essentially means having a little something extra in reserve, just in case.

Beat around the bush

This is a reference to beaters, who scare up birds for hunting. It is mostly used to refer to someone who can't or won't get to the main issue, whether a task or an idea. It's sort of ironic since a beater who's doing his job is in fact beating around the bushes.

Fly off the handle

An expression used to describe a hot headed person who acts, usually out of anger, without thinking, with bad results. It is a reference to an axe-head coming loose and flying off the handle. Naturally this is very dangerous and to be avoided.

Gee Whiz!

An exclamation of amazement, that essentially is just a way of saying Jesus! without blaspheming. It's what is called a minced oath.

Green eyes monster

Another way of describing jealousy, heralding from Shakespeare’s Othello.

Dead ringer

Someone or something that's so similar looking that one can't tell the difference. Has it's roots in horse racing, and the fraudulent practice of switching horses in secret to win.

Hair of the dog (that bit you)

A reference to taking a drink in the morning to quell a hangover. Comes from a ridiculous belief that rubbing the hair of a rabid dog that bit you, would cure the disease.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Commonly used to point out that a sure thing worth less ,is better than a risky but more profitable thing. It's a reference to falconry, meaning that a trained falcon is better than the birds in the wild.

That's it folks, until next time, have a wonderful week!

Why is it called that?

In our daily lives, we often use expressions without thinking too much about where they come from. Today we're looking at two of them; “crosshairs” and “balls to the wall”.

Crosshairs is usually a reference to an aiming mechanism and to say someone or something is in your crosshairs means you're completely concentrating on it.

Ball to the wall is an expression for speed and commitment. Going all out, or all in.

Interestingly enough, both have their origins in vintage aviation.

Crosshairs comes from the American Norden bombsight, a revolutionary new technology during WWII. The air-force tried all manners of different materials to get an accurate, well crosshairs for the sighting scope, even Black Widow silk, but nothing worked. The temperature differences the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-29 Super Fortresses were exposed to were so extreme that nothing seemed to work in such a delicate instrument.

Finally the scientists decided to try human hair. The problem lay in finding blonde hair that was long enough, at least 22 inches (56cm), which meant they had to use ladies hair, but the hair couldn't have been exposed to either chemicals (dyes) or extreme heat (curling or straightening irons). With the hair styles at the time, this proved to be exceedingly difficult.

Finally they placed ads looking for hair donations for “meteorological instruments”. A woman, Mary Babnik Brown saw one such ad and decided to donate. It turned out a success, and the official crosshairs was born.

Balls to the wall, despite sounding dirty have nothing to do with the male reproductive organs. Instead it's a reference to the throttle levers in old airplanes. They had round spherical tops, or balls, and when the time came, the pilot would slam them forward towards wall of the control panel. Thus balls to the wall, became synonymous with going as fast as possible, and being 100% committed.

It's in a sense similar to the expression “Pedal to the metal” which in turn originates from the world of racing. The pedal is of course the gas pedal, and the metal is the floor of the car. Cars were a lot more metal back in the day.

Well, that's that as they say. I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you next time!

Really dumb

Just a few days ago, there was a beta for Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the new version). Shockingly, it came to light that the game's entire progression is based on loot boxes. In other words, all progress in the game is down to random luck, and in order to mitigate that luck, you can buy more boxes for real money.

This is a tactic mostly used in so called freemium games, games that are free to play but urge you to use their micro-transactions to earn them money. Some are decent about this, others are scummy beyond belief, making you grind for days for everything unless you give in and pay.

Much have been said about the freemium market, but to see it so blatantly in a full price AAA game is disgusting. This comes on top of the Middle Earth: Shadow of War controversy, where it came to light that the multiplayer part of the game is heavily affected by loot boxes. Popular racing title Forza has added them as well in their seventh installment. Everywhere you turn, you find full priced games pumping out more and more micro-transactions and pay-to-win mechanics.

Publishers openly call their customers “Whales” and brag about not tightening the financial screws completely, “Because the whales might actually notice”. Games are becoming increasingly chopped up before the point of sale. We have Basic, Silver, Gold and Collectors editions costing ever more and more. Add on season passes for DLC that's not just unannounced, they're not even planned and you have an unbelievably hostile environment for the customer.

The natural question that follows is, why? To maximize profits, pure and simple. Some AAA games have budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the publishers want their money back with a hefty profit on top. This is of course standard business practice, nothing sinister there, but then the question becomes, why make games that are so expensive? Now the answer is not so obvious anymore. My best answer is that the businesspeople that make the decisions aren't gamers and they certainly aren't game developers. In their minds, if you invest a lot of money, you get even more money back. Fair enough I suppose, but games aren't just a product, they are an interactive form of art, and you can't make good art by throwing money at it.

When you spend this much on a game, you can't take creative risks anymore. This is why publishers love their flagship games so much. They can be pretty certain that gamers will buy the yearly installment no matter how repetitive they get, making it a safe investment. This brings us to today's actual point. Yes, it's not just me ranting at the AAA publishers, no matter how much they deserve it.

Just recently, a game called Cuphead got released. It's a side-scroller, jumper shooter. The soundtrack is 30's jazz and the animation is 30's cartoons. It's absolutely amazing to behold. There is nothing like it on the market. It is genuinely new! Disclaimer: it is also insanely difficult, so make sure it's for you before you buy it.

The kicker is that the development team, StudioMDHR, consists of two brothers. Another guy made the music. That's it. 2-3 guys, and the game has sold more than a million copies.

The hit, Stardew Valley, has sold more than a million copies, and it was made by one guy. The Five Nights at Freddy's franchise is made by one guy, and has made around $30 million. Ever heard of Minecraft? Developer Notch started alone, before hiring on some help. The when it became popular Microsoft bought out Minecraft for $2.5 Billion.

See where I'm going here? Instead of making bland, boring games year after year, the publishers with all the money could do a lot of smaller varied games. Games that people would talk about for years and even decades. Who is going to talk about Call of Duty X three years later? No one. Even better, the AAA publisher could stop using poverty as an excuse to cram gambling elements and RNG loot boxes in the games. Wouldn't that be fun? I think so.

Of course the AAA boys don't just make garbage, I know that. I'm just getting so tired of this behavior. They can keep their flagship games, but the world needs new games as well. The best part is that smaller games are cheaper to make and require less people. This has been proven. Some AAA title have 600-700 people working on them. That is way too much especially when some teams are in different cities or even separate continents. Communication and vision of clarity becomes impossible at that point.

Alright, I could go on, and I might at some point, but I think that's enough for today. Until next time, have a great week!

What a weird job.

With everything that's going on in the world, it's sometimes easy to get a bit depressed. But I find it curiously comforting that the world has always been weird and screwed up. Maybe it's a sense of permanency or the fact that things aren't getting worse. Some things get better, others worse, but overall the world keeps turning, the same as it ever was.

Today we're going to take a look at some of the really odd things people have done to themselves and to others throughout the years.

We begin with Micah Grimes, a coach for The Covenant School's girls basketball team. He was fired from his position because he led his team to a 100-0 victory in 2009. Being a private Christian school, the board found the victory to be “not Christlike”, and demanded an apology from Grimes. He however refused to apologize for doing his job well, and was let go.

A woman, I don't know where or exactly when, was fired for typing all her emails in BOLD LETTERS, and in red. She sued for wrongful termination and won.

A woman how was fired and didn't win her wrongful termination suit was Melissa Nelson. She was a dental assistant with ten years experience, and apparently really good at her job. The kicker? Her boss found her too sexy to resist and his wife urged him to fire Nelson. She was amongst other things accused of wearing clothes that were too enticing, even though she always wore regulation scrubs to work. Weirdos...

Speaking of weirdos and jobs, sometimes it's the job itself that is weird. Like the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use. No, they are not the thought police, their job is to eradicate so called Chinglish. China has had problems with very incorrectly translated signs from Chinese to English. Examples include “Cash Recycling Machines” (ATM's), “Anus Hospital” (proctologist) and “Fatso size” (Big portions).

Another interesting job, if you can get it is to be a Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London. They are all ex-military officers and their jobs are to guard and guide people around the Tower. The absolutely coolest Yeoman job has to be the Ravenmaster. He is responsibility is to care for the six ravens who must always be in residence at the Tower.

Besides Ravenmaster, the UK also has has the Office of The Swan Warden and the Office of The Swan Marker. Their job in a nutshell is to mark, oversee and give medical aid to the swans of Great Britain. The swan is endangered and most countries have offices that look after them. In the UK all swans are the property of the Queen, so we know it's serious business.

Finally, in the US, you can work for The Mutilated Currency Division. It's a part of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Their job is to replace damaged bills as long as you send in more than half of the note in question. The exception to this is if it's obvious that the rest of the bill is destroyed. They do this at no cost to you, but it's worth pointing out that they only handle paper money. Damaged coins are sent to the US Mint.

That's it folks. Until next time, have a wonderful, normal week!

Oh yeah, it's Monday

Just a short one today, as I had to go see a lady in white about a tooth and I'm a bit upside down.

So, in lieu of actual content, I have something as wonderfully silly as BattleBots for you!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ixB9k6aijw&feature=youtu.be&t=10m20s




So until next week, avoid killer robots!

Metrics

Pop quiz: What does the United States of America, Myanmar (Burma) and Liberia have in common?

The answer is they are the only countries left that officially use the old Imperial system of measurement. The rest of the world have quite happily embraced the Metric system. It must be pointed out that the U.K still uses Imperial in their daily lives, although they are Metric on paper at least. They also still, for some reason, like to use Stone as a measurement of weight. A stone is 6.35 kilograms or 14 pounds.

The Metric system was developed in France at the end of the 18^th century and quickly spread across the world due to its logical nature. Everything slots neatly together no matter what you need. 1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram and occupies 1 cubic decimeter of space. Nice and easy. It even works well with the Centigrade system of measuring temperature.

Fun fact: Celsius originally wanted the scale to mean that water froze at 100 degrees and boiled at 0. It was flipped upside down after his death by either Carl von Linné (the guy who created the naming system for all animals and plants) or by the French scientist Jean-Pierre Christin. Wikipedia unhelpfully claims that both did it. Maybe it was a cooperative effort. After all, it could have been a large thermometer...

Anyway, the U.S very nearly did adopt the Metric system back in the day. We go back to the time just after the American Revolution. George Washington was president, and future president and founding father Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State, and in charge of the details.

In 1793, French aristocrat and botanist Joseph Dombey set sail from Paris to Philadelphia carrying with him a rod that was precisely one meter in length and a copper bar that was one kilogram. Jefferson was known to be a fan of decimals and in need of an official system of measurement. It may seem strange to us now, but the newly created nation was in shambles. States and even cities printed their own money, they very nearly had a civil war and no one listened to the new government or indeed paid their taxes. Some people liked things to be like they always were, while others wanted nothing to do with the old British way of life.

So the stage was set for the Metric system to take the newly minted United States by storm. Except an actual storm blew Dombey's ship way off course and right into the Caribbean. There he was captured by pirates who didn't have any sympathy for Dombey's important mission. Instead they tossed him in a cell and sold his belongings, and that is the last time anyone saw poor old Joseph.

Did piracy derail the metric system in the United States of America? Yes and no. Sure it seems that Dombey's sad story is real, but no one know if the young nation would have adopted the Metric system or not, no matter how efficient it is. Sometimes people are stubborn just to be difficult.

Anyway, that's enough for today. Until next time, have a great week!

Keep Calm and,

We've all had days that didn't go as they should have. Everyone has been annoyed or troubled by someone in their lives; bosses, acquaintances, neighbors etc.

Sometimes we all want to just scream in frustration but we stay calm, and like the poster says, carry on.

The following people didn't exactly do that.

Take Reginald Peterson from Jacksonville, Florida. He ordered a sandwich from Subway, and discovered to his horror that they forgot to add the sauce he ordered, so he called the police. Then he called 911 again to complain that it took too long for them to arrive. To fix his sauce problem.

It's not just “normal” people who call 911 to complain. In 2008, Joe McCain, younger brother of Senator John McCain called 911 to complain about the heavy traffic in his area. The dispatcher understandably lectured him about why we call 911, where upon Joe said F—K You, and hung up. The dispatcher left him a voice mail explaining that he could be charged for doing what he did, so of course he called back to complain about the message.

If calling the police on someone isn't enough, you can always sue them in court. Or at lest try to. An inmate in the Colorado Correctional Facility sued the NFL for $88 billion because his team didn't make the playoffs. Hint: he didn't get the money.

Todd Kirkpatrick figured it would be a good idea to rob a bank. Then the police showed up and Todd ended up somewhat shot. He then decided to file a lawsuit from prison against the city for $6.3 million because the other cops failed to stop their colleague from shooting him in the first place.

One day Allen Heckard got fed up with being told he looked just like Michael Jordan. So he sued the famous basketball player for looking too much like him. He also blamed Nike for aiding in causing him harm. He demanded $52 million.

In Canterbury, a local man called 999 (the UK version of 911) to report a strange light above his house. The dispatcher said they would look into it, but he called back two minutes later and said, “You won't believe it, it's the moon...”

Michigan police officer Edward Sanchez decided to keep some weed for himself during a drug raid. Then that night, he and his wife baked and ate some weed brownies. They must have been pretty strong, because that evening Edward called 911 to report that he was dead. Well he wasn't, but his career was. He was fired soon after.

Jane Mulcahy, a devout Catholic sued her own divorce lawyers for failing to make it clear to her that she was in fact getting a divorce.

When Anton Purisima got bitten by a dog, he sued not only the city on New York, but also the city transit service, Au Bon Pair store, and many more. The kicker? He demanded 2 Undecillion dollars in damages. That's not a made up number either, it's 340 trillion trillion trillions. In other words considerably more money than actually exists in the world.

There are many more stories like this. The woman who called the police because her husband refused to eat dinner, or he woman who called because her boyfriend refused to propose to her. We have the man who sued the Guinness book of world records for getting the record breaking number of lawsuits he filed, wrong. How about the guy who sued Fosters for not being brewed in Australia? It goes on and on, and I think the lesson here is this: take a deep breath and think twice before acting.

Anyway, until next time, have a wonderful, calm, police free week, and don't sue anyone else frivously.

Nothing ever changes

Once upon a time, a group of young film makers moved west. They chafed under the tyranny of The Motion Picture Patents Company, also called the Trust. It was founded by Tomas Edison, and controlled all film making on the East Coast, which was to say pretty much all of the film making.

They moved to Arizona, and finding it not to their liking, moved on until the tracks ran out, and they found themselves in Hollywood. And so the movie capitol of the world was founded, and nothing has really changed since then.

I find it fascinating that the people and studios that founded Hollywood were independent filmmakers, young rebels that raged against the establishment and wanted to make something new. Today they are the establishment, unwilling to take risks and break new ground. Today's Hollywood are yesterday's Trust.

As an aside, we see the same exact pattern in the video game industry. What were once small passionate studios working on shoestring budgets out of garages and dilapidated offices, are today the EA's, Activision's and Ubisoft's of the world. AAA studios crewed by businessmen with no understanding of what makes a good game, only what makes profit at any cost. Gigantic marketing and media empires that care not about art, only about the bottom line. I guess that means that the video game industry has finally grown up.

Oh well, back to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The film industry grew rapidly and quickly became incredibly lucrative. In 1916, Alma Rubens starred in The Mystery of the Leaping Fish for which she was paid $3000 a week. That is $70,320 in today's money adjusted for inflation. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Then she became hooked on cocaine and died in 1931, her career in ruins. Fame it seems has always been a cruel mistress.

If we think studios are powerful today (and they are), it's nothing compared to how they were back in those days. Contracts had morality clauses that controlled the stars lives to an incredible degree. Get pregnant? Bad for business, get an abortion. Are you gay? Bad for business, marry a woman or get fired.

Not that the studios cared that their talent were gay or slept around. They cared that the public wouldn't find out. Apparently it was common knowledge who was gay in Hollywood, but the public never knew. Mass media was easier to control in those days.

Then we have the fixers and the cleaners. And make no mistake, they still exist. Their job was to keep everything squeaky clean on the surface.

Suppose someone overdoses at your party. What to do? Can't call the cops and admit illegal drug use at your house. Call the cleaners. They'll get rid of the body for you. Got some young thing pregnant and now she wants money? Call the fixers to fix the problem... You get the picture.

Everything we hear about the stars today, already happened a hundred years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

That's all folks, until next time, have a calm and stress free week!

Allowed or not?

What's considered shocking and taboo changes as the times pass. This is nothing new, we've all heard how people fainted from fright when the original Dracula (with Bela Lugosi) was shown.

But sometimes, what's considered acceptable and what's not can be really weird. Let me give you a couple of examples:

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n Roll, was censored from the waist down for a long time on TV, due to his wild pelvic gyrations. Jim Morrison (the Doors) and Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) were both ordered to change lyrics before appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show. Today, these bands are considered culture.

Did you ever watch I Dream of Genie? Barbra Eden and Larry Hagman (J.R. From Dallas) had good chemistry and the show had quite a bit of sexual tension between them. If I remember correctly, the characters even got married at one point. So what?, I hear you ask.

Well the Genie was dressed in what would commonly be considered a harem outfit, only her pants were lined with silk on the inside so that you couldn't see her legs. Furthermore, the executives argued for hours about whether they could show her belly button on TV. In the end, they decided to cover it up, even though the show featured more than one scene on the beach with women in bikinis, including Barbra Eden herself... Way to earn that paycheck, guys.

During the 50's and the 60's, you could show a married couple in their bedroom, but never with a double bed. Sure, most couples sleep in a double, but to show one would be demonstrating that the couple was intimate with each other, and that wasn't allowed. Never mind that all these TV couples had TV kids...

The 50's sitcom, Leave it to Beaver was the first TV show in the U.S. and probably the world to show not only a bathroom, but a toilet. The plot called for a couple of boys to keep a turtle in the water tank of said toilet, and after many long discussions, the network allowed it, but only if they didn't film the seat and bowl.

Finally I want to mention Tweety Bird. Warner Bros. tiny yellow bird that always thought he saw a “puddytat”. Well, originally he was pink, like baby birds are. Then the censors thought he looked naked and demanded a color change. Because small birds with big heads wielding mallets are apparently sexual. Who would have thought? At least the character wasn't ruined by the change.

Well, that's all I wrote for this week. Until next time, have a wonderful week.

Pretty deranged

I just learned that Tobe Hooper has died at the age of 74. You might not know who that is, but I'm sure you have heard of his most famous movie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

In a sense it's ironic because I intended to talk about a movie tied to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, due to the shared source of inspiration.

Movies like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs and today's feature, are all inspired by or based on, the grave robbing, cannibalistic serial killer; Ed Gein.

Today's feature is Deranged (1974).

I have previously seen this movie, but thought I should re-watch it, and I'm glad I did. It's better than I remembered.

The story in a nutshell concerns Ezra, a man raised by his very old testament mother. When she dies, his mind breaks from loneliness and he starts robbing graves, ultimately graduating to murder.

It would be easy to dismiss this as yet another slasher flick with a killer who has mommy issues, but that would be wrong.

First off, the film actually does a good job of making Ezra more sad than vile. Yes, he is creepy and horrible, but you get to see why and that's important. You can't just dismiss him if you feel even a little bit sorry for him.

Secondly, the violence is toned down a great deal, so that it doesn't overwhelm the atmosphere. You see, the atmosphere is amazing here. The gloomy winter landscape, the dilapidated farm, and the music. The music deserves a mention, as it's ingeniously church music. Hymns without vocals adds the perfect feeling of the influence Ezra's mother still has on him from beyond the grave. Well, the house to be exact. He's a grave robber after all. The gore is muted but the creepy corpses scattered everywhere are all in your face. Keep this in mind if you intend to see this film.

Ultimately, Deranged is not an amazing movie, but it's creepy and realistic, at least more so than it's more famous cousin, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you think Deranged has gone too far, read a little about what Ed Gein actually did, and you'll quickly realize that this movie has actually toned down a great deal of what happened.

This is an underrated horror movie and no mistake. It does what it does very well, and I'd even go so far as to say horror fans really should see it. Non horror fans should probably give it a miss though, unless watching badly preserved corpses having dinner is your thing.

Until next time, have a wonderful week!

What a weird Monday

So, an hour ago, a guy showed up at my door and filled my bathroom with smoke. Sounds weird, I know but there is a reason for it.
Our downstairs neighbours were apparently getting traces of cigarette smoke in their batkroom, which would indicate that the airvents in the house might have a minor problem. Thus they have to trace how the air moves, etc. etc.

The take away from my bizarre little tale is that I had to get up at an absolutely ungodly hour, just in case. You don't want to be stumbling out of bed at the same time some guy walks through your door, you know?

So as a result, my brain is absolutely hammered, an as you can probably guess, I'm going to cheat a little.

What I have for you today is Scottish stand up comedy:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRIQL4lvIqU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7BMabEPwVU

Enjoy, and hopefully I can bring you a proper entry next time. Until then, have a great week!

Making crime pay

Hi and welcome back to Eccentric Spheres.

Just a quick one today, as I have a lot to be getting on with.

I stumbled across a documentary about the making of one of my favourite films of all time, Goodfellas, and figured I'd share it with you guys.
But of course, one measly video isn't really enough so I found a couple of others as well, namely The Godfather trilogy and Casino.

Please enjoy, and we'll see wach other again next week!

Goodfellas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bbzUZuxEB8

Casino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ58ukQ2Vcs

Godfather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuEnjDaiEXQ

Scary ships and spooky cities.

Today we're continuing on last weeks theme of exploring old horror films.

We did four films last time, which I think is a bit too much, so this week we're experimenting with two.

Our number one entry is Death Ship (1980). This small movie stars some pretty famous faces, most notably George Kennedy and Richard Crenna. What we have here, is a pretty typical haunted house story, except it is set on a rusty, creepy ship. I could explain the story, but it's too convoluted and odd. To be honest, the ship is the best part of the movie anyway. It's an underused setting, and it's genuinely spooky. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is weak. I won't say bad, but definitely weak. The horror parts of the script make no sense what so ever, and the characters are pretty bland. One of the characters, a young boy, seems to exists only to go to the bathroom. I'm not kidding people, in a 91 minute film, this kid needs the toilet three times. Was the scriptwriter drunk?

Overall, Death Ship is a middle of the road horror movie. There are many worse out there, but also many better. Worth watching for the theme, or for the sake of completionism. Oh, and don't confuse it with Ghost ship (2002), as that movie is abysmal.

The second entry is Nightmare City (1980), by Umberto Lenzi. In case you're not in the know, Lenzi is one of the big names in Italian horror cinema. So my interest was peaked when I found this. It didn't take very long for my interest to curl up and fall asleep. The biggest flaw in Nightmare City is that it's boring. I won't say it's bad, but if you say so, I won't argue too much.

The story revolves around these zombies, except they're not really zombies. They're people who have been exposed to some sort of radiation, that gives them superhuman strength and endurance. They also desperately need to drink fresh blood, so they're sort of radioactive-vampire-zombie-psychos? Oh, and their faces get all blackened and bloated so that you can tell who's a bad guy. Then, somehow, they infect others, who start killing to get blood, and so on.

This film has three interesting points. 1. It's considered the first movie with rage (or fast) zombies. 2. The rad-zombies use tools and weapons. 3. It's being remade by Tom Savini, the effect maestro. Maybe he can save this train-wreck of a film.

Overall, watch this film only from an academic film history point of view.

That's it for this time. With any luck I'll have some good movies for you soon. We're going to have to see, won't we? Until then, have a great week!

A Creepy Quartet

I have yet again dipped my toe in the vast sea of old school horror cinema.

The funny thing is, some of these old films can be quite good, even though they really are pretty bad. I know that makes little sense, but some of them have a certain quality to them that comes from a mixture of passion and ingenuity. I don't want to sound all hipstery and “everything used to be better”, but they couldn't rely on cheap digital effects and overly dark scenes, back then. Something many modern films have in abundance. And don't get me started on shaky-cam...

Anyway, first up is The Haunted Palace (1963), by Roger Corman, starring the inimitable Vincent Price. It's essentially The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft, but toned down. The film was billed as one of Corman's Poe movies, but the only Poe in it is a poem. It's pretty standard fare for the time, that is gothic, overly dramatic and all shot in a studio.

I saw it back in the 80's and didn't care for it, but now, I found it has a wonderful old charm about it. If you're into 60's velvet and paint style horror, do give it a watch.

Next up is Psychomania a.k.a. The Death Wheelers (1973). Here we have a gang of bored young people, who get their kicks driving their bikes fast and harassing the townsfolk. Their leader Tom, finds a way to come back from the dead and when he actually succeeds, he urges his gang to follow suit. For some reason you are indestructible if you return from the grave like this. Then stuff happens.

What makes this film worth mentioning, is that they aren't zombies or vampires, or anything like that. The movie does it's own thing and I like that. All things considered, I can't recommend this. Sure, there are worse films out there, but also so many that are better.

Dr.Terror's House of Horrors (1965) looks and feels like a Hammer Production, but it is in fact not. It's produced by Amicus Productions, who made several anthology films like this. A group of men share a train carriage, and have their fortunes told, leading into their own segments. It felt like a prototype for better films of it's kind that came later. The stories vary in quality from lousy to passable, but what makes this movie stand out is the cast; Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Donald Sutherland are the most famous, but almost everyone is a famous face in British cinema. It's also the only film I can recall where Christopher Lee is terrified. All in all an okay movie, but not that good.

Finally, we get to Terror Train (1980). This is the best film on the list by far. A group of graduating college students partying on a train get killed off, one by one. The killers takes the costumes of his latest victims as he stalks them on the train. It's for the most part pretty standard fare, but a few things need mentioning. First of all, it stars David Copperfield in one of his only movie roles. Second, the mood and the setting is really good. Third, and we are heading into spoiler territory here, the film pretty much tells you who the killer is from the start. Yeah, they try to make you doubt it, but it's super obvious. Finally, again minor spoiler, the main star is none other than Jamie Lee Curtis. She had starred in and survived Halloween only two years earlier, and not once did I get the feeling that she was in real danger. I mean, come on, if Michael Myers couldn't kill her, how is this third rate slasher supposed to?

That's it for this time. If you don't want to watch any of the films mentioned above, there are plenty of others to choose from. So until next time, have a great week!

Documentaries and the Flu

Hello there,

In case the title confused you, I'm not talking about documentaries about the flu, but the fact that I have the flu and I've been watching documentaries.

As a consequence of sitting here, filled to the brim with phlegm, I have nothing else for you than to link a couple of really interesting documentaries I watched yesterday.
The first is about Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Lord of Propaganda, based on his diaries. I found it a pretty interesting look into his life.
The second is about Doctor Morell, Hitler's personal physician. it goes over all the insanely illegal (today) drugs he pumped into Hitler on a daily basis.

So, if you're in the mood for a bit of History, have at it. I'm going back to coughing a lot.

Until next time, have a great week!

Goebbels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bic0m3P3a6I
Morell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpStk3N1dSU

The Fifth Cord

Today we're diving back into the world of the Italian cinema of the 70's. A film recommended to me by a friend called The Fifth Cord (1971).

The Fifth Cord is a Giallo, which is Italian for yellow. The Giallo genre are thrillers, sometimes spilling into horror, and possibly with an erotic slant. The name is derived from post fascist era Italian paperback novels of this genre, which had yellow covers. The classic Giallo has a killer with black leather gloves, stalking and killing a bunch of pretty women. Lurid entertainment in other words.

The Fifth Cord is a murder mystery, pure and simple. Well, not that simple as the plot is actually really good. In hindsight, I should have figured out who the killer was, but I was nowhere close. As a Giallo, it's interesting as some but not all, victims are beautiful women. Some victims are men as well.

Plot wise we have the protagonist, Andrea Bild (Franco Nero), a reporter with a drinking problem who tries to figure out who the killer is. The police suspects that it could be him, but it's pretty obvious that it isn't. That's not a spoiler BTW, it's super obvious. The killer keeps on killing, and leaves a glove with fingers removed as a calling card. Every consecutive murder has one more finger removed than the last, leading the police to believe that there will be five murders in total. This is where the title comes from, by the way. I don't get the cord bit either, but the original title is Giornata nera per l'ariete, which translates to Black day for the ram. Go figure.

The cinematography is exceptional, it really is. I could go on gushing about the composition in certain scenes, but just take my word for it.

The music is by none less than Ennio Morricone himself, so that's another feather in the cap. Though it should be said that the intro music will make your ears bleed. It is absolutely ghastly. Once you get past that, it's a fine film.

Obviously, if you're not a fan of films like these, you wont' like it, but if your cinematic omnivore, or you want something a little bit different, go for it.

As an aside, I just learned that the father of the modern zombie movie, George A. Romero has passed on. There are countless films, shows, comics and games that wouldn't be what they are without his original work. Rest in Piece and all that.

Until we see each other next, have a great week!

Rogue One

So, I finally got around to watching the latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One. (2016)

Yeah yeah, I'm a year late, but better late than never. So this is what I thought of the film. I'll skip spoilers as much as possible, but treat this as mild spoiler territory, just in case.

In a nutshell the story is this: a group of rebels attack an imperial base to retrieve the plans to the original Death Star. Sure, there's a lot more to it than this, but that's the really important bit. Rogue One is set a few days before A New Hope (1977) and goes almost right into it.

Much like Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One is a very pretty movie. The effects are gorgeous, and really solid. The acting is good, solid work all around. The music is wonderful, even though it's not by John Williams. Fun fact: some scenes are unused shots from Episode IV: A New Hope, and some outfits were recycled from the original trilogy. This is smart as it gives a subconscious connection to the original trilogy.

Speaking of the original trilogy, Governor Tarkin has a prominent spot in Rogue One, but as you may know, the original actor - Peter Cushing - died in 1994 so they couldn't really use him. They could have used another actor like say, Charles Dance, but instead they digitized Cushing's face onto an actor. For being computer graphics spliced into a live action film, they did a marvelous job. It is a tricky job to say the least, but they got very close to pulling it off. They also tried it with another character but that looked really awful. Mixed success there.

The script is mostly good, but they couldn't resist putting in scenes paralleling the original trilogy. You'll recognize them when you see them, and I wish they hadn't bothered. Also, some scenes are needlessly dark which makes it hard to see things, but they weren't too many.

My biggest complaints about the movie are as follows:

• A ship jumps to Hyperspace way too close to a planet, something that goes against deeply established Star Wars lore.
• They manage to communicate long distance while in Hyperspace. This would be impossible as the signal would have to travel faster than the ship.
• If you push an object in space that's bigger than you, it takes considerable energy, and if that object rams into another thing, that thing should move, not break. Also, the energy originally needed, would at the very least double, but apparently the laws of physics are very different when you're far far away...

These things are small, and you may think that they are excessively petty and ultra nerdy. And yeah, maybe they are, but fixing them would have been so easy, and it seems so sloppy to leave them like they are.

I could go on nitpicking, but I won't. The other things I could complain about are more or less a matter of taste, so I'll leave it to you to decide.

At the end of the day, Rogue One is an entertaining film, and I had a good time watching it. If you like Star Wars, there's no reason not to watch this film.

Other fun trivia: this is the first and (so far) only Star Wars movie without the yellow text scrawl in the beginning, as well as the only film in the franchise that never mentions the name Skywalker.

I'll stop ranting here, and until next time, have a great week!

Kathy Rain

One of the games I picked up on Steam during the Summer Sale (still going as I write this) is a game I've wanted to play for about a year: Kathy Rain.

Kathy Rain is a Point & Click adventure game in the style popular in the 80's and 90's. It runs in the style of Gabriel Knight, King's Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island etc.

What's important to note is that although Kathy Rain looks and feels like a 90's game, it's made in 2016. This is important, as the game is a lot more player friendly than it's older cousins used to be. For one, there's no Moon Logic around. For another, you can't get stuck by using an item in the wrong place. The game, or rather the protagonist, Kathy, tells you if there's no point in asking a person about a particular subject or showing them an item. So there's none of that annoying repetitious “That means nothing to me,” spam that older games often had. So over all, it's a very comfortable and easy to use game. And there's no, what's known as pixel bitching, hunting for one pixel on the screen to find a clue in order to proceed.

That's not to say that it's a cake walk. Like all games in this style, there are lots of puzzles, some are really easy, others are fairly hard. I'm no expert at puzzle solving, but I managed to solve most of them pretty easily. A couple took some time, and I had to look up the solution to one. This one puzzle is the closest thing Kathy Rain has to Moon Logic, but even so, it's nowhere as bad as the old games.

The game is set in 1995, and follows our heroine, the eponymous Kathy Rain, a tough journalist-to-be biker. She heads back to her childhood town to discover what her grandfather was up to and to deal with some stuff from her past. This is the kind of story that could be explained naturally or it could be supernatural, ultimately it's up to you. I think the supernatural fits the narrative a bit better. Kathy is a fearless, snarky kind of person, which have annoyed some gamers, but I didn't mind. I think the game adequately explains her personality, and demonstrates that her attitude is more of a coping mechanism than a defect of character.

It took me about eight hours to finish the game, which I think is a decent length as it makes it easier to keep the whole story in mind. The narrative is pretty focused, but it doesn't railroad you either. There are humorous elements, sad moments, creepy happenings and more. I got a Twin Peaks vibe from it, but it's definitely its own thing.

Bottom line: Kathy Rain is an amazing game. I always liked the genre, but couldn't get past the borderline impossible puzzles and unintuitive gameplay. Kathy Rain is absolutely worth it, if you're even slightly curious about the genre of Point & Click adventures.

Until we meet again, have a great week!